The Mermaid Room
by Charles Bennet
My room is like the inside of an oyster shell -
at high tide the water reaches halfway up the wall,
the door can be opened without spilling a drop.
My treasures are a toast rack and an eggcup,
a pair of stilettos, a little black dress
and twenty-seven wedding rings.
On foggy nights I am the melancholy
smooch of a saxophone, leading you astray.
In summer, flute laughter shivers from my throat.
You find me one evening in autumn
following the hint of lemongrass and cinnamon
that lead up the stairs to a numbered door.
I am sunlight on the under-floor of forest,
cardamon, galangal, ginger -
a soft commingling of constellations;
I am the voyage you will make alone
in a small, unstable, open boat
for the rest of your life...
In the morning they'll find you in the harbour
your lungs full of daisies and snails in your hair
traces of gold beneath your nails.
The fishermen will shake their heads:
they've seen that rapturous, troubled look
too many times.
By then, I'll have had my breakfast
my face will be flickering like faces in a dream
or a water-colour, overcome with rain.
From the collection The Mermaid Room by Charles Bennet. Reprinted with permission of the poet. All rights reserved © .
Charles Bennet was born in 1954 in the North West of England. He left Hazel Grove Secondary School at 16 and worked for 14 years in a variety of office jobs. In 1984 he attended London University and during his first degree in Drama & Theatre Studies was awarded a one-year scholarship to study at the University of Massachusetts, where he was mentored by Joseph Brodsky and Amy Clampitt. He returned to the UK and following the completion of his Doctorate on Seamus Heaney, taught English and Drama for several years before working in Literature Development. He has been the virtual poet in residence for the National Library for the Blind and received a substantial award from the Arts Council to create a poetry trail in an orchard. He won the North West Poetry Pamphlet competition for The Mermaid Room and his acclaimed first collection Wintergreen was published by Headland in 2002. His poems have appeared in over 100 poetry magazines including the TLS and his readings have been described as “captivating” [Manchester Poetry Festival]. He is currently completing his MPhil in Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan and his second full-length collection, How to Make a Woman Out of Water , will appear from Enitharmon in 2007. Married, he lives and works in Herefordshire, where he is Director of Ledbury Poetry Festival.