On my birthday in 2012, my friend Mark Lewis, master storyteller, sent me a very special gift.
It arrived in my Gmail inbox.
It was a long ballad, composed by Mark, which he said was mine to do with whatever I wished.
At the time, I was at a small birthday gathering in Redmond, WA, with members of the Lost Girls Pirate Academy. We were having a coloring party at Soulfood Cafe, decorating custom pillow cases for the children’s hospital. I asked the pirates’ permission to share my treasure, and they listened eagerly.
With Mark’s blessing, I soon added my own flair to the words, adding a verse here and there and editing the rest but barely, and turned the piece into a song. We were able to perform it together the following summer in Eugene, Oregon, with the help of the wonderful Betsy Tinney and her cello skills. Mark played bass recorder on stage with us, all unscripted.
Yesterday evening, I found out about Mark’s death. It happened two days ago. He was sixty years old, and I had heard from him that same day, confirming that he had agreed to be at a festival with me next August. My memorial post is here, and the beautiful community memory website is here. Faerieworlds photographer Byron Dazey has compiled his best photos of Mark, where you can see his great heart shining out like a star in every single shot.
Everywhere online, in the wake of Mark’s passing, bright souls are generously sharing their best memories and photos of him. The joy cannot help but trump the grief, such was his magic and the strength of his giving and willingness to connect with anyone and everyone he met. I’ll take a turn now and share the first of two songs that Mark and I were working on together. I am so glad to have had the chance to create something with him at all. I miss him, and I can’t wait to get this song recorded. I hope and trust that he’ll be proud.
The Ballad of Lauralei (Nothing Lasts Forever)
by Mark Lewis & S. J. Tucker
Far away in another time
When worlds were young and fair
In a village by the sea there dwelt
A lass with auburn hair.
Her beauty was known for miles around
Her eyes were bright and green
Her figure fine and face sublime
Like none had ever seen
She came to wed a fisherman
A rascal, old and grim
None in the land could understand
What drew the girl to him
She cooked his meals and kept his house
And cared when he was ill.
Hers was all the sunlight
His, the dark and chill.
*
She played her part like all the rest,
the women and the wives.
We loved our town beside the sea
and kept our quiet lives.
We knew she came from far away,
but none of us would pry.
We came to know her and to name her
Little Lauralei
Time was I called her dearest friend
and often I would spy
a secret dancing in her smile,
a twinkle in her eye.
One day she gave me bold advice
as we walked beside the sea:
Ne’er let a man get ‘neath your skin
If ere you would live free.
Men go sailing out to sea
and think that they are clever.
Men’ll be bold to have and to hold
But nothing lasts forever!
*
When her husband’s life was done,
His funeral held in town,
Her shining eyes were clear and dry.
She uttered not a sound.
Into the church she would not go
She stood without the door
And watched the parson bless her man
And bear him from the floor
Down in the ground they laid his bones
But the widow never cried.
Back to their home she walked alone
Along the waterside
The following day I came to call
to help her with her chores.
And a glimmer caught my eye
Among the dust behind the door.
*
*
In shadow there I spied a thing
That sparkled ever bright,
With greens and golds and colors fair
Reflecting all the light
Odd it was, and long and dry
A hide so strange and thin.
“Why would a fisherman ever save
This bit of flimsy skin?”
Then Lauralei was at my side.
“Long years I’ve thought it gone!
Give it to me! Now let me be!
I’ve stayed for far too long!”
And from my chapped and shaking hand
She snatched the shining hide
And from the house like mad she ran
Down to the rising tide
**
And there upon the shells and sand
She lifted up the thing
She filled her lungs with sweet sea air
And then began to sing
“So long ago he caught my soul
And on to land brought me
And took my tail so I would fail
Returning to the sea.”
The fragile, folded thing she raised
And in the water threw
She dove and wrapped it round her legs
and there her tail it grew!
“No more will I on land be tied
The sea is mine to roam!
Farewell to you!” the Mermaid cried.
And vanished ‘neath the foam.
**
We knew she came from far away,
but none of us would pry.
We came to know her and to name her
Little Lauralei
She’d long been wed to a fisherman
A rascal, old and grim
Her tale was true, and now we knew
His nets had pulled her in.
Time was I called her dearest friend
and often I would spy
a secret dancing in her smile,
a twinkle in her eye.
I hold in my heart the bold advice
that once she gave to me:
Ne’er let a man beneath your skin
If ere you would live free.
Men go sailing out to sea
and think that they are clever.
Men may be bold, to have and to hold
But nothing lasts forever!
Men go sailing out to sea
and think themselves so clever.
Brazen and bold, to have and to hold
But a Mermaid‘s captured never!
Fisherman, beware my words
when you go hunting treasure
If you’d catch a Mermaid‘s heart
Keep clear of her displeasure!
Men go sailing out to sea
and think that they are clever
Brazen and bold, to have and to hold
but
Nothing lasts forever!
