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Mysterious Mermaid in Derbyshire Find!

Interesting to see the way this site is working.  Angela posted an entry about a long forgotten ballad on The Mermaid's Pool near Hayfield and this has triggered a response from  Derbyshire poet, Jeremy Duffield, who was inspired to write about a mermaid after his visit to Whaley Bridge last year.  Was he picking up the vibes?  Does this mermaid still exist?  Anyway, Jeremy has been kind enough to send his poem below.

THE MERMAID AT WHALEY BRIDGE

 

There is no sand here,

no waves to hide between

nor rocks to bask upon,

but in this still backwater,

deep and green,

where blown petals pepper like confetti

the rain-rippled surface,

I roll and twist, dive

then shoot upwards,

snatch at docks and nettles,

the clocks of dandelion heads and yellow vetch;

and then he spies me

through the doorway of his narrow-boat

from where the smell of late breakfast streams.

He almost speaks,

then remembers his wife is there below.

He holds the door ajar;

I slip onto the bank,

arrange my hair to show I know he's watching.

He takes a watering-can to fuchsias

on the roof, unaware of the rain.

He hears me singing,

thinks he can walk on water.

 

 

Jeremy Duffield

21 August 2009 from Will Newman

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