Manannan’s Daughter – Cantos two

Greetings Stranger. I trust you spent a restful day and are refreshed by sleep’s sweet balm. Eat now. I have brought of my Mother’s wealth and here is fruit and sweet water, gifts of my island. I will sing for you while you enjoy my humble offerings.

Rise and fall
Ebb and flow
Wisdom of the sea,
Calm and storm
Wind and still
Sea birds in the sky,
Sound and silence
Balm and pain
Whale songs in the night,
Drift and hold
Found and lost
Dolphins on the waves,
Rise and fall
Ebb and flow
Wisdom of the sea.

You wish a story with a happy end tonight? I shall tell you of my world and how I spend each day.

Every morning when the gates of dawn begin to open, I return to the sea. How joyfully the waves welcome my body. How gloriously the newborn sun jewels the laughing sea. The seals greet me by the grotto where I found you. We play and dart through sea caverns and let the waves wash us high and catch us ere we fall.

The dolphins hear our play and soon ask to join us. They carry us farther out to sea where the scarlet coral grows. We explore the forests of the ocean floor. Whirling, darting, dancing in vibrant grace, we dance away all thought of time.

Now the great whales join our joyous throng. Powerful and somber, they know the exuberance of the sea. We go far beyond the thought of land. Only the sea and the wind can find us. We dive deep, learning strange secrets harbored long in silence. We speed to the surface leaping high above it. The sea reclaims us with her laughter.

The sea carries us to sun-drenched islands that only she can find. We play and laugh in the emerald waters until the sun stands directly above us. Then the seals and I pull ourselves onto the rocks. My favorite resting place is a rock shelf high above the sea. The sun bathes me in his warmth and the wind’s caress is soft.

I listen to the wind. He tells me of his far journeys. There are tall lands above the sea. He tells me of these places, of the great mountains that kiss the heavens, of forests that whisper to themselves, and of warm, fragrant meadows. But the seagulls cry above me and I hear the sea. When I can resist the call no longer, I return to her.

Laughing she receives me. She tosses me high, catching me softly. The dolphins come to guide me home again. We race and dance with the waves.

Too soon the day begins to end and I seek my home shores. I leave the sea with the departing sun, climbing the cliff above the grotto where we bid our farewells. The sun kisses the water with golden promise. The sea spray caresses my face in sweet parting. When the beacons light the velvet night, I turn to my own cavern.

Tell me friend Stranger, is that story more to your liking? But see the dawn is near and I must go and live my story.

Copr. 2019 Maggie Grimes