Six candles on your birthday cake
We have many more wishes to make
On this day, let there be endless fun
With days of fairy tales creeping in
Toddler to preschooler to schoolgirl
Let the year ahead be more joyful
You are moving ahead with time
I won't get a chance to go back in time
But I swear, to put my greeting in rhyme
I am sure, now you can read and write
Cheer with rainbow colours so bright
From scratches to sketches, you moved on
To draw the figures of your choice
Oh! Saanvi, it is gala time for us to rejoice.
We read fairytales to find our prince.
We listen to music to find our soul.
We post to social media to be seen.
But why, when we're alone, do we stare at the stars?
From afar, mere specks of light fighting to shine against the abyss surrounding them. But up close? Beautiful and dangerous. Too close, and you burn away.
Is that why we distance ourselves? Why we keep our heads buried in the books we envy? Because why do characters get to have what we can never find? Why does Cinderella get to find her prince, and Rapunzel get to let down her hair, while I'm still stuck in the tower, scrubbing away the mess others made of me?
The beginning always on repeat. Stop and rewind. Never seeing the end credits of “Happily Ever After.”
No. Never.
For me…when times are rough…I think back to Fairy Tales….
How evil wins its share of battles…but in the end…how good prevails.
Whenever I fight evil…sometimes I lose…sometimes I win…
and oftentimes I’m in need of mending….
but I truly believe for every Once Upon a Time
there should be a happy ending.
I also know life in not always a Fairy Tale…
filled with joy and love…and laughter…
I know there is pain and suffering and heartache in our world
and that everyone does not life Happily Ever After.
But…having been influenced by Fairy Tales all my life…
my mission is a simple one:
To enter into the fairy tale of everyone I meet…
so when their story’s done…
I may not have been able to come to their rescue
riding a white horse…like a knight…
but their lives will end a little happier…
because of the pages I helped write.
Today I’m thankful that I’ve never stopped believing
in fairy tales, legends, myths and fantasies
That I can still recall these stories…remember them…with ease
The stories I grew up with that have helped to keep my disposition sunny
like Santa Claus, the tooth fairy…
And today a Happy Easter…from the Florida Easter Bunny
Today I’m thankful for fairy tales…
Albert Einstein, a man who should know believed
If you want your children to be intelligent
read them fairy tales…
He had even more to say on this subject
here are those details…
If you want them to be more intelligent,
He said
read them more fairy tales.
I do
I do
Once upon a time
I did
Crash
Blood
Dismembered parts of us
Burned arteries
Holding
A heart
Still beating
Still bleeding
the past
Is a blade
Memories cut
Deep
As the knife of regret
Slices what’s left
Of our lives
I do
I do
Once upon a time
Remember you
What was
So different
From
What is
And what now is not.
Elizabeth Dispenza. Copyright 2023
Divorce poems
high on a hilltop
stands the castle of the wind
in fuchsia rose mists
enchanted fortress
with a broad moat surrounding
child's fairy tale land
palace of bright stars
when the crescent moon's shining
all indigo night
castle of the clouds
in brass sunshine of morning
when dreams have come true
If there is a version of us
reflected by the stars in the sky
the world dappled with supernovas
would be left with a breathless sigh;
Faith’s bountiful cup would pour
from Earth’s crown flowing with ease;
Romance would live once more
marveling at our masterpiece;
Reclaiming what was lost long ago
your feelings so easily dismissed;
Now gazing at our love you know
that fairy tales really do exist.
I firmly believe that fairy tales should come with a disclaimer
some sort of warning label affixed to the very front page
right before the first paragraph or the opening scene in film versions
in big bold letters on the cover of the play program
declaring that such stories can prove dangerous to developing minds
I’ll gladly testify to the truth of that statement
I grew up wishing on stars because Jiminy Cricket told me to
assuring me there was no dream too extreme
Not a single one of those wishes ever came true
Others’ fondest desires manifested into reality
those of the kids whose parents had money
Never for me
No prince on his noble steed showed up on my doorstep
or merely a sincerely nice guy who behaved like royalty
I couldn't care less about a crown or the riches that come with it
I’ve been an adult awhile now yet I continue to wait
for fate to intervene like lightning from the blue
though my luck all it would do is set my house on fire
Crickets are compulsive liars
Fairy Tales..
Fairy tales ride
On the feathers of time..
The feathers fall and
Reveal the wisp of time..
Leaving the sky
Not-ending and open
For new tales arising
And feathers falling...
I
open
my book as
I sit in my
cozy little nook. The words I'm reading
bring pictures to my mind. Tales come alive!
I'm a princess
waking to
true love's
kiss!
Aug. 14, 2020 for Eve Roper's Double Tetractys Poetry Contest
Picture #2
Telling fairy tales of she who wails
beside a lake in campfire’s glow this night,
it’s shadowy, for moon has hid its light.
My friend’s face pales; my sister bites her nails
as we lean in while listening with fright!
Our narrator melodramatically
relates the story of a woman who
had drowned herself because of misery.
And horrors! She had drowned her children too
inside this lake! Leaves rustle on our tree.
Wind now howls. My brother then shouts BOO!
theme: Telling fairy tales of she who wails
Jan. 30, 2020
rhyme scheme: abbab cdcdcd
Her parents use to read her Fairy Tales
she remember their voices…
their joy…
their laughter
which is why, she imagines, she grew up
believing in happily ever after.
She believes in bears that talk…
in trees that dance…
in wizards who can fly...
She believes a kiss can turn a frog into a prince
She believes in castles in the sky…
She believes in dragons who breathe fire…
She believes some mice may be blind
She believes witches can be beautiful
and ogres can be kind
And today, now that she is old
every night when she closes her eyes in bed
she still believe in magic lamps…
in beanstalks
and houses made of gingerbread.
And when she opens her eyes every morning
she smiles wondering how her parents knew…
how happily ever after her life would turn out
how Fairy Tales do come true.
... Among the shadows of the groaning elms,
amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves ...
... Once there were paths that led to coracles
that clung to piers like loosening barnacles ...
... where we cannot return, because we lost
the pebbles and the playthings, and the moss ...
... hangs weeping gently downward, maidens’ hair
who never were enchanted, and the stairs ...
... that led up to the Fortress in the trees
will not support our weight, but on our knees ...
... we still might fit inside those splendid hours
of damsels in distress, of rustic towers ...
... of voices heard in wolves’ tormented howls
that died, and live in dreams’ soft, windy vowels ...
Originally published by Sonnet Scroll
When she was young…just a little girl
when life was more innocent and free
she believed in castles in the sky
in fairy tales…and fantasy.
She believed from the sparks of a campfire fireflies were born
She believed in happy endings
in mermaids and unicorns…
She believed in houses made from gingerbread
that every sentence ended in rhyme
She believed rubbing a lamp could summon a genie
She believed long hair she could climb.
When she was young she believed in Santa Claus.
She believed her grandparents lived in a world of black and white.
She believed in the magic of a kiss.
She believed her blanket would protect her at night.
When she was young she’d play outside for hours.
She’d come home with scraped up knees.
She believed she could see the entire world when she climbed to the top of a tree.
And when she grew up she still believed…
In happy endings..in fantasy…and play
but the duties and responsibilities of life often got in the way…
Which is why now that she is older
she loves to find moments when her fantasies are reborn…
moments when she revisits her fairy tales…
and finds her unicorn.
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