Fairy Tales Are An Endangered Species
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Many
thanks to those readers who have been in touch to say they are enjoying some of the storylines serialised on
my fiction blog. I hope to upload them as e-books later this year or early
next:
I have
even had positive feedback from several straight readers who are enjoying the
gay storylines. Wow, that’s nice!
Meanwhile...
Whatever
happened to the fairy tale? On the one
hand, an endangered species, while on the other hand ...
Could it
be that the metaphor of fairy tale has finally shrugged off its magic cloak for
an even darker reality? Oh, for a return to the world of fairy tale and happy-ever-after endings...! [Whatever happened to those?]
Fairy tales are very readable, easy to read and easy on the ear when someone is reading aloud to a child who may need encouragement to read and develop necessary language skills. In addition there is a certain morality about some tales, those of Hans Christian Andersen for example, that can be also read and appreciated as metaphor for the real world by the more discerning adult; The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling ... et al.
Fairy tales are very readable, easy to read and easy on the ear when someone is reading aloud to a child who may need encouragement to read and develop necessary language skills. In addition there is a certain morality about some tales, those of Hans Christian Andersen for example, that can be also read and appreciated as metaphor for the real world by the more discerning adult; The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling ... et al.
FAIRY TALES
ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Forests,
a kaleidoscope
of
colour, patterns ever changing
even as
we look, like pages
in a
child’s book bringing fairytales
to life
for us
Six
swans, six brothers,
winging
spring skies, seeking an end
to
enchantment but must wait
until
their sister, like us, finds a way
to make
the change
Knights
in armour, wielding
swords
that spark a summer sunshine;
rose
petals dripping the blood
of rivals
challenged and taken to task
for the
sake of winning
Snow
White in a glass coffin,
no hope
of resurrection, the wicked
witch has
won? Our turn to woo
the
mirror now, autumn skies exposing
a
festering of wounds
Dragons,
breathing fire
that
would kill off the trees to please
property
developers who
have no
time for fairy tales - or
the likes
of us
Latter-day knights,
wielding
words
that spark a wintry sunshine,
robins
dripping the blood
of rivals
arguing over the last prize left
to us (a
glacier coffin?)
Copyright R. N. Taber 2007
Copyright R. N. Taber 2007
[Note:
This poem has been slightly revised/updated from the original as it appears in Accomplices to Illusion by R. N. Taber,
Assembly Books, 2007.]
Labels: children, contemporaneity, escapism, fairy tales, fantasy, imagination, life forces, love, metaphor, mind-body-spirit, personal space, poetry, reality, society
posted by R. N. Taber | 07:49
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