The Fairy Pool

 by Cerridwen Lee 

 This week’s theme is “Inspirational Ideas” Of course this got me thinking about what inspires mankind. The power of literature, music, art is an obvious one. They are ever-changing, influential and prominent in all cultures around the world and express the emotions that make up the complex human being. Politics is another. The elections in America are causing chaos at the moment. Politics has always been quick to bring me to anger, however, so I wouldn’t call it inspiring for me personally.

I’m going to get down to my real point. Although such things as art and politics are popular choices for inspiration, I’ve always looked towards mankind itself for inspiration. The human race are such curious creatures, and I’ve always been fascinated and horrified by our actions. Many history and psychology books adorn my shelves, accompanied by thick old books of mythology and legends from an array of different cultures. The human mind is incredible, and it is shown for me in not just our actions, but through the things we dream up such as myths and legends and the unseen things we fancy creep in the shadows. Our fascination with the unseen inspires me. I mean, you have got to have a few questions unanswered, don’t you?

This brings me swiftly onto the poem I wrote the other week. I was inspired by a little pool in my local woodland that is tucked away into the depths, hidden by a fallen oak and two large willow trees. I found it two years ago on one of my nature rambles, and regularly visit, perched upon the fallen oak tree gazing at it. There is something mystical about this pond, which led me to call it  “the fairy pool” I can imagine them sitting by it, as I do, singing and playing music that gets lost in the cold winter winds whistling through the trees. Fairies, or the fey folk, can be viewed in many differing ways; cute and small, sat on a buttercup or dancing delicately round a mushroom ring. I view them in an open-minded respectful manner. If they were to exist, I believe they’d be more a part of the earth itself and have been since it began. Inspired by them and the nature around me that day, I began to think of mankind’s wrongs. This poem is a “Rondeau”, an old French lyric form I have been experimenting with.

The Fairy Pool – RONDEAU

The fairy pool lays perilous and deep

Where the fey folk both chance to dance and weep

Hidden, sunk, dark within the woodlands rule

Dare to venture in and you are a fool

You may become victim to those that creep

The silver waters swell, ripple and seep

Into the rich soil that the fey folk reap

With not so much help as one metal tool

The Fairy Pool

In modern world magic they strive to keep

Avoiding these humans that are so cheap

Disillusion and a streak of sharp cruel

Mankind care for nothing but moneys fuel

Corruption still building, poisonous world

The Fairy Pool