I met a man with selkie eyes from the sea as mutable and strange as songs pulled from the deep. When the night bleeds light from the sky, he looks at me through those translucent eyes, storied as glass worn by the cresting tides and all I can hear is the chiming pull of waves, the call of magic beyond the binding tines of time.
Selkies are mythical seal creatures found in Scottish, Irish, and Faroese folklore. These shapeshifters can shed their seal skin and take human form. It is said that if you cry seven tears into the ocean at high tide, this will call a Selkie man to you. Selkies were known for their longing for the sea; to keep one with you on land, the seal-skin would need to be hidden from the Selkie, however, should the Selkie find it, they will slip back into the sea never to return.
Written in 2014
Lyrics
Selkie man with eyes like the sea
Peel your skin of tenuity
Seven tears for seven years
I've cried to bring you to me
Hear the song of the Dan-nan-ron
Heed the call of the deep
Let the pull of the lilting tides
Sing the dark 'o' the sea
Selkie heart that crests with the tides
Crashing surf of your landless cries
I've seven years to tame your tears
To claim your wild-sung moonshine
You have run with the shadow tines
You have swum the seas of many eyes
You have turned salt cheek to the rage of time
And come to wrack beside
Selkie dreams are a dulcet sleep
To you my earthly cares I'll cede
Seven years of spellbound tears
Such enchantments you shall make
Call me home to your Sulle Skerry
Touch my pain with your fears
Change the face of these lonesome years
Recall that sea back to me
Sing the song of seals and sigh
The seafoam sounds of your ancient rhyme
For Selkie tears have brought me here
But love is the skin that binds
