Song of the Selkie

Enter the wondrous world of the Selkie. According to Celtic legend a selkie is a seal underwater and a woman on land. Sometimes she emerges from the ocean shedding her white selkie-coat to dance on the sand in moonlight. In the liminal space of the shore she is vulnerable to capture by a man and she may become a mans wife and the mother of children. In Song of the Selkie the Selkie voices her experience of being caught between two worlds: one of the sea of freedom and the other of marriage and motherhood. Other voices join in: a Lighthouse-Keeper the spirit of Ruth and even a baby. Through these poems readers can enjoy the extraordinary magic of selkie stories and--through their retelling--gain insight into experiences of love and loss the fears and choices experienced by women and of finding hope in the future.