Lingering

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown."

T.S. Eliot - The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock (1917)

This poem has lingered with me throughout the years. It is a favorite, whose lines never leave me; they always seem relevent.

I was finishing up a piece I started with Julie (http://www.julienuttingdesigns.blogspot.com/) and Paulette (http://www.summerlandcottagestudio.blogspot.com/) of a mermaid. It had been lingering for weeks, and I didn't quite know how to complete it. I initially Mod Podged a portion of the lines above on the top, but then I remembered I had left out more of the poem that was relevent to the mermaid, so I did more paper collaging and embellishing. I then wrote the words with a Super Marble Jell Pop pen.

While completing the piece, Paulette gifted me with this book that had lingered on her shelf: Century Handbook of Writing published in 1918. I take great comfort in things that never change like poems published and the rules of English grammar. But there is also an attraction to things that have the potential to change, like a work of art in progress. Both linger, both comfort, both may be indulged.

Happy Friday : )