β
I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.
β
β
AnaΓ―s Nin
β
The sea waves stirred before me
they dashed against the rocks
Like a mermaid rising from its depths
curled white sea foam were her locks...
β
β
Giselle V. Steele
β
The day I bought my cane, I realized
I was through with the burden of feet. Instead,
I am going to become a mermaid.
I have always liked the ocean, the promise
of depth. I am tired of this dry world,
all of this dust and sickness, these barren fields.
I want to dive without drowning. I want to kiss sharks.
I want men to carve me into the bows of their ships
like a prayer, before I lure them into the depths
with my fishnet mouth. I want the beauty,
the gorgeous mutation, the fairytale of half body.
All the wisdom of a woman, without the failures of sex.
I am plunging. I am not coming up for air.
I do not want all this human,
my legs move like they resent being legs,
my body is wrecked by all this gravity.
I cannot face another morning waking up
with no hope of a fairytale. Here on land,
I am always drowning. Here on land,
I cannot move.
β
β
Clementine von Radics
β
When all is done, you must look in your own heart to know the truth. It lies at some middle depth, half-truths above, half-truths below. Even my truth, what I tell you know, is colored to fit my vision. Find your own truths as best you can, only remember that few are courageous enough to tell a tale of which they are not the hero.
β
β
Alida Van Gores (Mermaid's Song)
β
You've become a queen, a woman with a complicated personality. You have hidden depths and a wisdom and intelligence that all went unnoticed before by an idiot prince whose heart couldn't listen to anything his ears couldn't hear."
Ariel felt a little giddy. "I control storms and the heart of a prince. I like that." If she were in the sea she would have been swooning, thrashing her tail and spinning in circles until she was dizzy.
β
β
Liz Braswell (Part of Your World)
β
There are mainly nine emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Pity, Disgust, Expectation, Surprise, and Trust. You are attached to those who give you joy. You are attached to those who make you sad. You are attached to those you fear. You are attached to those you are full of pity for. You are attached to those who disgust you. You are attached to those you expect from. You are attached to those who surprise you. You are attached to those you trust. In short, you are attached to those who evoke any kind of emotion in you. You should consider them all as mermaids, or the infected souls out to sink you in the depths of their bad Karma.
β
β
Shunya (Immortal Talks)
β
It's as if someone bought all the diamonds at Tiffany's, and crushed them into dust, then spread that dust across the water so that it sifts down evenly, filtering through the shards of light that cut into the depth. We are swimming through eternity, my daughters' bright mermaid legs, kicking out, towards deeper water. I stay beneath the surface and marvel for as long as lungs can hold. "Swimming is the reset button," Pallas used to say, "swimming starts the day again.
β
β
Ann Patchett (Tom Lake)
β
All through the winter months, Rose kept up the practice of sitting by the fire with Peter and a book telling him stories. The doctor stopped to listen one afternoon out of curiosity, and heard her say, ββ¦then the Mermaid said to the Pirate, βI would rather perish with the boy than go with you.β And the Pirate said, βSo be it,β and sealed them both up inside the treasure chest. Then the pirateβs crew got together to lift the chest up, and with a nod from their captain, they cast the chest overboard into the sea. The chest was so heavy, it sank in the water in spite of the air inside, and in seconds it was gone from view, disappearing into the deep blue depths. If the boy and the mermaid were unable to free themselves, they would surely perish.β Peterβs eyes were wide with interest. βBut- I canβt tell you what happened- youβll have to find out next time.β She stopped and closed the book. Peter shook his head and put his hand on the book. She laughed and said, βYou want to hear more now, do you?
β
β
Christopher Daniel Mechling (Peter: The Untold True Story)
β
I watched the colored lights and sparkles coming off of Sebastian in the dark water, as the ocean began the process of rebuilding his tail. I longed to join him in the water, to wrap my arms around him and let him carry me under the sea; but I wasn't ready. For him, the ocean was a home; for me it was death. Without being able to transform, the ocean depths would suffocate me, the pressure collapse my bones and flesh.
β
β
D.S. Murphy (Shearwater (Ocean Depths, #1))
β
She was beautiful.
Before, she had been pretty and gorgeous, lively and smiley, all red hair and perfect skin and quick movements. Now her eyes were deeper. He could fall into her face forever and happily drown there, pulled into her depths. There were worlds in her mind that were only just forming before.
β
β
Liz Braswell (Part of Your World)
β
A beautiful, swirled brown and white shell like the one Ursula used to wear, but larger. A whelk, not a nautilus. Vareet picked it up in wonder, turning it over in her hands, admiring its gleam in the moonlight. On a whim she put it to her ear.
Her eyes widened.
In the depths of the shell, she could hear what must have been the echo of distant waves... and also the song of a mermaid.
β
β
Liz Braswell (Part of Your World)
β
Guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the body β Elder David. A. Bednar Β You wear guilt like shackles on your feet, like a halo in reverse β Depeche Mode, βHaloβ Β I must be a mermaid...I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living. β AnaΓ―s Nin
β
β
Karina Halle (The Debt)
β
When the denizens of the land arrive in the depths of the blue waters, aquatic love takes them into its shelter, they forget the sound of the anklets of the daughters of the land, they sleep with the mermaids, and afterwards, they sigh with regret for the warmth they have lost, they long for weeping, and awaiting a reed flute player, they stare at the far-away surface of the water.
β
β
Moniro RavΓ’nipour (The Drowned)
β
Matthew emerged from sleep slowly, luxuriously. It must be nearly noon. He swam up from the depths of a calm warm sea. The glittering sea of the far south that he'd read about. A blue sea under a glorious sun. A sea full of pearls and exotic creatures and soft silky water.
And mermaids.
Indubitably there were mermaids in this sea.
His particular mermaid slept naked in his arms.
When he was inside her, she undulated in endless waves like a sea of pleasure.
β
β
Anna Campbell (Untouched)
β
I have a mermaid tattoo on my ankle because mermaids are not afraid of depths, of storms, and of men. The mermaid is, in my opinion, the most powerful archetype for the modern day woman; courageously braving mental challenges and emotional storms in a world dominated by men. Mermaids are never caught; they are only dreamt of, longed for. And if you want to stay with one, you must learn to breathe underwater, learn to enter her oceans. You, too, must become more than mundane.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
Lots of people do not feel and do not care, deeply. They're the sea creatures who were born to swim in the shallows. And I think that they look at those of us who come from the parts of the ocean that's pitch black and deeper than the core of the planet and they feel fascinated. They're fascinated in the way we are fascinated with eagles or with vampires. They think we're unabashedly deep and beautiful and they feel like they want to try being that way, too. It's like a fascination for a mystical creature. But I have watched these kinds of people burn out before they ever reach that depth (not even close). They burn out because they just get so exhausted! You only have the set of lungs designed for the depths of the ocean, if you are the type of creature who was born in those depths. It's not a regimen, it's not a list of rules, it's not a succession of steps to get there. It's about anatomy. There are creatures for the shallows and creatures for the deep. It is nature's designer plan. And when these people burn out, they will have these outbursts wherein they lash out at you, as if they are exasperated at why you're a mermaid in the black of the seas, and if they could, they'd drag you into a glass tank and chain you up because they don't want that kind of beauty around them, outshining them. Feeling and living in the depths of life (caring so much it hurts, feeling so much it becomes painful) is a mystical, beautiful thing but it cannot be copied and it shouldn't be copied. Everyone has their place and you are going to drown if you can't breathe underwater.
β
β
C. JoyBell C.
β
He could feel himself gliding down like the sail of a weightless craft, forever plunging into the great beyond below where mermaids sing and summon their lovers home, further down into the depths of some complacent serenity, further down where thoughts float away and never return and the lightness is so grand that there is no other worldly place imaginable, for there is no world left to be
considered. There is only the soul, free from the prison of the body, and it is released to travel
another millennium through time, carrying with it the progress and industry gathered from the
mind previously occupied.
β
β
Matthew Chase Stroud (Paths of Young Men)
β
You are the mermaid; I am the mermaid hunter.
You lead me through your wake and I follow,
Knowing my fate.
You swish your tales and the water boils between them:
I sink,
I drown,
going down
to green depths
wordless.
I shall not taste your full sweetness, only
your salt madness;
I will not tell our wild secrets,
For while it lasts, my hollow skull skulks after you,
Lying at times in your cold hands,
To be tossed aside indifferently,
Roll and rise with the tides, fall again,
Come to rest half buried in the sinking
shifting sands.
Anemones be my eyes
As I watch you swimming from me
Laughing.
β
β
Dorsey Griffin (Woman Who Runs with Wolves: Poetry of the Macabre and Other Poems)
β
Mermaid queens didn't often have a reason to move quickly. There were no wars to direct, no assassination attempts to evade, no crowds of clamoring admirers to avoid among the merfolk. In fact, slowness and calm were expected of royalty.
So Ariel found herself thoroughly enjoying the exercise as she beat her tail against the water- even as it winded her a little. She missed dashing through shipwrecks with Flounder, fleeing sharks, trying to scoot back home before curfew. She loved the feel of her powerful muscles, the way the current cut around her when she twisted her shoulders to go faster.
She hadn't been this far up in years and gulped as the pressure of the deep faded. She clicked her ears, readying them for the change of environment. Colors faded and transformed around her from the dark, heady slate of the ocean bottom to the soothing azure of the middle depths and finally lightening to the electric, magical periwinkle that heralded the burst into daylight.
She hadn't planned to break through the surface triumphantly. She wouldn't give it that power. Her plan was to take it slow and rise like a whale. Casually, unperturbed, like Ooh, here I am.
But somehow her tail kicked in twice as hard the last few feet, and she exploded into the warm sunlit air like she had been drowning.
She gulped again and tasted the breeze- dry in her mouth; salt and pine and far-distant fires and a thousand alien scents.
β
β
Liz Braswell (Part of Your World)
β
Riding high and above the waves on extemporaneous notions of an afterlife, Michael brought one foot forward and let it dangle over the roofβs edge. He knew that he did not have much time before the other would follow. Some patients below could see the figure atop the building from
the courtyard. They started to rile with anticipation, their irate murmurings incomprehensible. A
groundskeeper looked up to see what justified the commotion. Michael could hear the shouts
from below. He almost toppled when the wind picked up again, but recovered and kept one foot
dangling with the other anchored to the roof. The hoots came louder now, almost calling him
toward them like sirens guiding ships in the night. From below it was impossible to make out the
face of the balancing figurine now poised in suspended descent. Another gust came. He closed
his eyes, felt the levity manifesting, and felt the complete freedom inside. He could feel himself
gliding down like the sail of a weightless craft, forever plunging into the great beyond, below
where mermaids sing and summon their lovers home, further down into the depths of some
complacent serenity, further down where thoughts float away and never return and the lightness
is so grand that there is no other worldly place imaginable, for there is no world left to be
considered. There is only the soul, free from the prison of the body, and it is released to travel
another millennium through time, carrying with it the progress and industry gathered from the
mind previously occupied. The time it spans inconceivable. He let his other foot go from the roof
and felt himself completely let go.
β
β
Matthew Chase Stroud (Paths of Young Men)
β
Djuna, you're taking me to the bottom of the sea to live, like a real mermaid."
"I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living. But you, poor Rango, you're from the mountain, water is not your element. You won't be happy."
"Men from the mountains always dream of the sea, and above all things I love to travel. Where are we sailing now?" - AnaΓ―s Nin, The Four-Chambered Heart,
β
β
AnaΓ―s Nin
β
Should you listen to a highly trained scuba diverβs advice before plunging into the depths of the ocean? Yes. Should you believe that person when the diver talks about seeing a mermaid making love to a dolphin? No.
β
β
David McRaney (You Are Not So Smart)
β
This is one of the dangers of their [teenagers] ineluctable depth: they live the poetry, the true value of the way words resonate and not their dictionary meanings or conventional uses. It's why teenage mouths are the hotbeds of slang, and its most natural environment. Some years only sounds would erupt: everyone saying "WOMP" to each other, because they liked the way it moved in their heads and echoed in their ears, big and rubbery and round.
β
β
Julia Langbein (American Mermaid)
β
With the decanter, the artist tells the love story of a Mexican warrior who traveled to the very depths of the sea in search of his beloved mermaid.
β
β
Jessica Hawkins (Violent Triumphs (White Monarch, #3))
β
The sun has its seasons and tides flow upon its surface and currents through its depths. The moon, a magic mirror, reflects the future and all that exists. Her soul unfolds cycles of time in ways the sun cannot imagine. And the two together, their gravity waves pulse in the land, the mountains, the seas.
β
β
William R. Mistele (Mermaids, Sylphs, Gnomes, and Salamanders: Dialogues with the Kings and Queens of Nature)
β
Is he from New Orleans originally?"
"Born and raised."
"The people here are born below the sea level and they spend their whole lives wanting to go back to where they came from. My own theory is that everyone from here was a mermaid in another lifetime and they are all trying to swim back to the bottom of the ocean. That Michael of yours will drag you down to the depths if you let him. It's not his fault either. That's where he's most comfortable.
β
β
Margot Berwin (Scent of Darkness)
β
Hot green swamps, timid, nervous trees, mermaids lying on the surface of the water in the moonlight, relaxing after their mysterious activities in the depths, cautious inscrutable natives, empty villages
β
β
Arkady Strugatsky (The Snail on the Slope)
β
She waited for one of them to say something that might facilitate a more in-depth conversation, something that might bridge the distance between them; but neither man spoke.
β
β
Wendy Wax (The House on Mermaid Point (Ten Beach Road, #3))