Because I Am A Mermaid Print

Because I Am A Mermaid is a poem by Michael F. DuBois of Dream Of The Woods. The text was designed and hand-drawn by Michael and printed onto archival-quality luster photo paper.

DIMENSIONS: Print 16"x20"

"Why do you visit the shore so often? Because I am a mermaid. You lived out there in the wild sea? I did, it’s where I learned to swim. The storms, they taught me courage and the calm it showed me joy. And the bottom? The very bottom, deep, deep down underneath? Oh yes, I’ve been there too. So far, sometimes, I thought I’d never see the sun again. But that’s the sweet thing about darkness — it helps you find your own light. Sadness then, is there sadness out there? Or can you swim from it like you can’t here on land? No one can hide from their sadness, no matter how fast they move. But the ocean taught me to welcome it and I now love it like an old friend. It only ever visits to remind me how wide and how vast I’ve loved. How about beauty — the kind that stirs in your chest and makes you feel alive? Can that be found out there too? Oh, that exact kind, yes. And once you’ve been to the bottom and learned to befriend your own grief the beauty seems to show its face in nearly everything you see. So then why, with all that it’s given you, with freedom and clarity and thankfulness and bliss, would you leave and live here on land? Because, as anyone who’s ventured out far enough knows, once you find peace in the ocean you’ll want to make the world a little more like the sea. Will you ever return then? Back out to your home? Someday I will, I’m sure of it, when I’m finished sharing what I can. But until then I’ll visit the shore. Because you are a mermaid? Yes, because I am a mermaid.”