Strange Clay

Fishfolk, werefish, not quite sure.
2015 clay-play.

Graves: "Mermaid, Dragon, Fiend"

MERMAID, DRAGON, FIEND

In my childhood rumors ran
Of a world beyond our door—
Terrors to the life of man
That the highroad held in store.

Of mermaids' doleful game
In deep water I heard tell,
Of lofty dragons belching flame,
Of the hornèd fiend of Hell.

Tales like these were too absurd
For my laughter-loving ear:
Soon I mocked at all I heard,
Though with cause indeed for fear.

Now I know the mermaid kin
I find them bound by natural laws:
They have neither tail nor fin,
But are deadlier for that cause.

Dragons have no darting tongues,
Teeth saw-edged, nor rattling scales;
No fire issues from their lungs,
No black poison from their tails:

For they are creatures of dark air,
Unsubstantial tossing forms,
Thunderclaps of man's despair
In mid-whirl of mental storms.

And there's a true and only fiend
Worse than prophets prophesy,
Whose full powers to hurt are screened
Lest the race of man should die.

Ever in vain will courage plot
The dragon's death, in coat of proof;
Or love abjure the mermaid grot;
Or faith denounce the cloven hoof.

Mermaids will not be denied
The last bubbles of our shame,
The Dragon flaunts an unpierced hide,
The true fiend governs in God's name.

--ROBERT GRAVES

Dumas' The Three Musketeers (novel and films)

My favorite version--after reading Alexandre Dumas' classic novel The Three Musketeers--to watch: Richard Lester's version (scripted by the author of the Flashman novels!)--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-LfUtHnEBY

But then you'll also need to watch Richard Lester's sequel (though part of the original French novel):
The Four Musketeers--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMhwGUGNuxI

Dougie MacLean's "Leis A Lurighan"

On the ocean o‘he
Waves in motion o‘ho
Not but clouds could we see
O'er the blue sea below
Islay loomin‘ o‘he
In the gloamin‘ o‘ho
Our ship's compass set we
And our lights we did show
Aros passing o‘he
Was harrassing o‘ho
The proud belows to see
High as masthead to flow
Captain hollers o‘he
To his fellows o‘ho
Those that courage would flee
Let him go down below

In the tempest o‘he
Waves were crashing o‘ho
And the cry of the sea
As the cold winds did blow
Captain hollers o‘he
To his fellows o‘ho
Those that won't stay with me
Let them go down below

Neoprene Dreams

Or, A Sense of Menace?  Doesn't that first shot seem like a certain type of paperback crime novel cover?

Or, really, the other shots, the accidental photographs . . . .

The Witch and the Frog

My mother always told me that she was a witch and that when I was a very small boy she'd turned me into a frog and that I had hopped around the yard behind her while she watered the plants. I could remember that, or almost, you know? I believed her, my mother.  And who wouldn't want to be a frog?  Who wouldn't want to be the one child that she had transformed in this way.  And, she'd always turned me back into her dear boy.

And our whole lives together, we never questioned these truths. We never broke the bond of the shared story. All our lives.

So, whatever I may think rationally, I never read transformation stories the way a person who hasn't been a frog--my mother said, right?--reads that story. (I mean, I probably don't even think about frogs the same way someone who hasn't been a frog thinks about frogs.)

And that's a gift she gave me, a gift we shared together: the magic of story, of imagination, of transformation and sharing.

Cannery Row Free Diving

A fun quick swim
down and about
on a low viz kind of day.