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Week 15: We are Mermaids

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I really enjoyed reading this poem because it forced me to reconsider the way that society tells us we have to live. The use of the ocean in this poem creates a peaceful image that encourages readers to slow down in their lives and not feel pressured to be as on the go as society tells us we need to be. The stanza that starts with “You can spend your life benthic, or brackish,” created this image of existing underwater and when I think of being underwater, I think of how quiet everything gets. There is no noise from cars or people, just the sounds of the ocean which are calming. In the ocean, there is only nature and the natural cycles of life. There is nothing that would show “success” in the eyes of society. This stanza made me consider how society puts pressure on us to be successful, but who gets to decide what being successful looks like? Maybe for one person success looks like being content with their life and for another person, it looks like having a certain lifestyle.

The third stanza also made me think of society’s rules or expectations. There is a very specific timeline that society tells us that we need to achieve certain milestones by and this stanza challenges that. The lines that say “sacrificing their poise for their careers, / need not be the only mode of living” make the reader think of their life beyond what society encourages. Working is important and necessary, but there is more to a person’s life than their career. These lines emphasize the need to not sacrifice so much of your life for something that does not reward or fulfill you. We are not bound by the limits that society places on us and this poem reminds readers of that. 

Week 15: We are Mermaids

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The poem “We Are Mermaids” was very interesting to me. I found the writing to be beautiful and believe there can be multiple interpretations of it. I interpreted the poem as being written from a mermaid’s perspective but also think this could be compared to the perspective of human life. The descriptive language of the ocean such as “the salt of the ocean is always the salt of tears”, “we know the consistent waves”, and “to nose along the floor of the rough world” all explain how the ocean is home to mermaids. The salt of the ocean being compared to tears shows that they feel every emotion in this home. This is where I can begin to compare this to human life. While humans do not reside in the ocean, home in real life is often a place where emotions are felt. Home does not have to be a physical house, but can be a place or person of comfort and feelings. The poem also refers to the mermaids as “both predators and prey” which I can also compare to human beings. Each person in the world plays a different role in other people’s lives. In some stories, people can be villains, disliked, or negative while in someone else’s story that same person could be a hero, liked, or a positive. This is similar to how mermaids are depicted differently in different stories. In some stories, mermaids are seen as beautiful creatures who do no harm while in others they might be villainous and evil. The poem ends by saying “Some of us are going to be okay”. This is another aspect that is apparent in both myth and real life. Life is unpredictable and there is no guarantee whether or not a persons life will work out the way they want it to. I liked that the poem said “some” and not “all” because of this lack of guarantee. Comparing mythical stories to human life in this poem is very powerful. The poem teaches valuable lessons for humanity while also telling the tales of mythical creatures and how they can be depicted differently.