Poem: "Out of This Dull World"
Apr. 10th, 2016 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the April 5, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from alatefeline. It also fills the "fish out of water" square in my 4-1-16 card for the Archetypal Characters Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.
"Out of This Dull World"
There are layers upon layers
of reality, like leaves in a book.
There are worlds within worlds,
like a set of nesting dolls.
There is the cold grey world
of rules and obligations and
all the painful practicalities of life.
There is the bright fey world
of music and dancing and laughter
and everything that fairies love.
Who told you that you couldn't go?
Who said it was impossible
to slip out of this dull world
and step into Fairyland?
Someone told you fairytales
when you were little, when it was
acceptable to believe in magic.
And then someone told you lies,
said that those things were
only for little children.
There are grownups in Fairyland.
Where else would the changelings
come from, the fairy-children
left in mortal cradles?
There are minstrels and poets
gleaned from dreamy hillsides
and swept inside to perform
for the fairy court.
Who told you grownups can't go?
Was it the same person who told you
that grownups don't cry or blush or
clap their hands when they're happy?
Someone told you lies.
Someone said those things,
but you don't have to believe them.
You don't, because you know the truth,
and it's right there in the fairytales.
The fairies are like you.
They look different and
talk funny and dress in ways
that boring people think are silly.
Some of them have bodies
that don't work quite right
or have distorted shapes.
They spin and dance
and clap their hands.
They weep at weddings and
christenings, laugh at funerals,
get all the social things wrong.
They have their own ways
of doing things and everything
must be done just so.
They are passionately fond
of things -- music or sweet food,
animals, sparkly things, perfume,
or one particular type of flower.
They are filled with amazing knowledge
of the obscure and the arcane, yet
they don't know the everyday things.
They don't like being stared at,
though, and they can turn cruel
at a moment's provocation.
They are powerful, too, in ways
that you have never learned
but could perhaps become.
They won't tolerate abuse, not even
from someone who "loves" them.
Why would they turn you away?
You are like the fairies.
It is said that some changelings
survive and grow up, who may even
have families, and thus there are
humans with fairy heritage.
They are the mad poets
and the wandering minstrels,
the strange children who grow into
eccentric adults, the fish out of water,
the ones who never seem to fit in.
But there's a place.
There is.
If you can find the way,
you can come home to the place
you've never known but always
dreaming of belonging.
The keyhole is through the green light,
the key is a four-leaved clover,
the door is a mushroom ring --
oh, there are many ways,
told over in many tales,
like blazons along a trail.
Who told you that you couldn't go?
They lied, they lied to you,
just like they lied when they said
you were bad and wrong and broken
and good girls good boys grownups
don't do things like that.
So what you do is up to you.
Follow the sound of fey laughter
and you'll find the other changelings.
Follow the lights, and you'll find
the road to Fairyland.
You can pipe with the wind
and dance with the fairies, and
no one will say it's wicked or weird
because they're all singing and
clapping right alongside you.
It's true, what the fairytales said,
and you know it in your bones.
You don't have to stay with
people who say they love you
and then hit you, who never seem
to understand you, who say that
it's wrong to be what you are.
You can go.
You can slip out of this dull world
into the magical realm that lies
over the bridge, under the hill.
So come away, come away, to the Fey.
* * *
Notes:
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
-- William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire," 1894
Fairies appear throughout folklore. Among the most popular are stories about a fairy bride, who behaves in unconventional ways and will leave if her husband mistreats her. Changelings also appear in many tales. Fairies may be distinguished from humans via their strange habits or appearances, such as obsessive counting. If provoked, they are formidable enemies.
The autism spectrum comes with a wide range of traits, which may be somewhat different in girls than the more commonly described boys. Now look at how much overlap there is between fairies and neurovariant humans -- quite a lot, really.
alatefeline. It also fills the "fish out of water" square in my 4-1-16 card for the Archetypal Characters Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. "Out of This Dull World"
There are layers upon layers
of reality, like leaves in a book.
There are worlds within worlds,
like a set of nesting dolls.
There is the cold grey world
of rules and obligations and
all the painful practicalities of life.
There is the bright fey world
of music and dancing and laughter
and everything that fairies love.
Who told you that you couldn't go?
Who said it was impossible
to slip out of this dull world
and step into Fairyland?
Someone told you fairytales
when you were little, when it was
acceptable to believe in magic.
And then someone told you lies,
said that those things were
only for little children.
There are grownups in Fairyland.
Where else would the changelings
come from, the fairy-children
left in mortal cradles?
There are minstrels and poets
gleaned from dreamy hillsides
and swept inside to perform
for the fairy court.
Who told you grownups can't go?
Was it the same person who told you
that grownups don't cry or blush or
clap their hands when they're happy?
Someone told you lies.
Someone said those things,
but you don't have to believe them.
You don't, because you know the truth,
and it's right there in the fairytales.
The fairies are like you.
They look different and
talk funny and dress in ways
that boring people think are silly.
Some of them have bodies
that don't work quite right
or have distorted shapes.
They spin and dance
and clap their hands.
They weep at weddings and
christenings, laugh at funerals,
get all the social things wrong.
They have their own ways
of doing things and everything
must be done just so.
They are passionately fond
of things -- music or sweet food,
animals, sparkly things, perfume,
or one particular type of flower.
They are filled with amazing knowledge
of the obscure and the arcane, yet
they don't know the everyday things.
They don't like being stared at,
though, and they can turn cruel
at a moment's provocation.
They are powerful, too, in ways
that you have never learned
but could perhaps become.
They won't tolerate abuse, not even
from someone who "loves" them.
Why would they turn you away?
You are like the fairies.
It is said that some changelings
survive and grow up, who may even
have families, and thus there are
humans with fairy heritage.
They are the mad poets
and the wandering minstrels,
the strange children who grow into
eccentric adults, the fish out of water,
the ones who never seem to fit in.
But there's a place.
There is.
If you can find the way,
you can come home to the place
you've never known but always
dreaming of belonging.
The keyhole is through the green light,
the key is a four-leaved clover,
the door is a mushroom ring --
oh, there are many ways,
told over in many tales,
like blazons along a trail.
Who told you that you couldn't go?
They lied, they lied to you,
just like they lied when they said
you were bad and wrong and broken
and good girls good boys grownups
don't do things like that.
So what you do is up to you.
Follow the sound of fey laughter
and you'll find the other changelings.
Follow the lights, and you'll find
the road to Fairyland.
You can pipe with the wind
and dance with the fairies, and
no one will say it's wicked or weird
because they're all singing and
clapping right alongside you.
It's true, what the fairytales said,
and you know it in your bones.
You don't have to stay with
people who say they love you
and then hit you, who never seem
to understand you, who say that
it's wrong to be what you are.
You can go.
You can slip out of this dull world
into the magical realm that lies
over the bridge, under the hill.
So come away, come away, to the Fey.
* * *
Notes:
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
-- William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire," 1894
Fairies appear throughout folklore. Among the most popular are stories about a fairy bride, who behaves in unconventional ways and will leave if her husband mistreats her. Changelings also appear in many tales. Fairies may be distinguished from humans via their strange habits or appearances, such as obsessive counting. If provoked, they are formidable enemies.
The autism spectrum comes with a wide range of traits, which may be somewhat different in girls than the more commonly described boys. Now look at how much overlap there is between fairies and neurovariant humans -- quite a lot, really.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-10 06:19 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2016-04-10 06:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-10 09:33 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2016-04-10 09:39 pm (UTC)Thank you
Date: 2016-04-10 10:49 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you
Date: 2016-04-10 10:53 pm (UTC)\o/
That's the reaction I was hoping for.
>> Thank you. Thank you for writing this poem, for taking the quote and the prompt and the comment and making this amazing piece of writing. Thank you. <<
You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed this so much. It really seems to resonate with other readers, too.
You might also enjoy reading through fairy lore and looking for the similarities yourself. Some of the examples are more subtle, but "The Fairy Bride" is not the only one with some really dramatic matches.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-11 12:26 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-11 12:41 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-11 02:43 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-11 03:30 am (UTC)That is possible.
>> Then I look at lists of traits and similar and think again. I'm definitely wired differently, but in what way?<<
There are many different ways to be neurovariant. As far as I know, the term started in the autistic community but has spread beyond it.
I'm far too linguistically gifted to fit the autistic pattern, which emphasizes linguistic deficit. But a lot of the other traits match. I'm obviously not neurotypical; I can only fake being ordinary for a few hours at maximum effort. I just don't think the way humans do. *shrug* Since they're currently demolishing the planet, I don't think they have much high ground of sanity to stand on.
>> It can't all be blindness-related. <<
That may be true. However, some of it could be. People with a different set of senses tend to wind up with brains wired differently. The less well your eyes work, the more weight you put on some other sense(s). Well, each area of the brain has a certain amount of space alloted to it in the standard configuration. If you're not using much of the visual part, but you've maxed out the hearing or tactile parts, then chances are your brain will reconfigure to avoid wasting that very expensive space in the visual drive. These changes can have side effects.
Me, I know that I have a linguistic coprocessor far beyond ordinary human capacity. (I got perfect scores on several sections of the Pimsleur language test. Apparently nobody does that.) Conversely my face-recognition is the cheap shareware version, not the premium factory version that most humans have. And I'm cool with that.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-11 10:51 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-11 11:49 pm (UTC)I'm not much good at math.
>> Face recognition is average, and I'm terrible with remembering names unless I met someone name-first (like in a chatroom, or via DW or LJ), but I can pair people with skills or useful details pretty easily.<<
I'm bad at names too. I'll remember names/faces of people I interact with frequently but otherwise they tend to seem vaguely familiar and that's it.
>> Now that I'm fully Awakened, I get a boost with knowledge via nonlocal recall, <<
Yay!
>> but it comes at a nasty cost. I can either do magic at a high level (and thus stay Awakened) OR be a competent engineer and builder of things, apparently. <<
Yeah, a major drawback of incarnation is that it's like working with a tiny hard drive. If you can download stuff from the rest of your soul, that's terrific ... but it won't all FIT in the body. You have to pick and choose. There's never enough space and it's always a pain in the neck.
>> but we'll see how long that stays so. It looks like something to do with the body (built off someone else's pattern), rather than with my soul, so it might not stick later. <<
LOL yes that part is like moving into a new house. ZOMG what were they thinking with this fugly pea-green carpet?
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-15 06:51 pm (UTC)Heh. The house my parents bought when we moved to Nashville, EVERYTHING was olive-green. Olive carpet, olive drapes, olive appliances, olive FLOCKED wallpaper in the front bathroom. (Who puts flocked wallpaper in a BATHROOM FFS?) It took them most of a year to de-olivify the house enough that they could live with it. (Whether I could live with it or not was immaterial -- they changed the wallpaper in their bathroom, but the front one was the one I used and the most I could argue them into was orange accessories to balance it out a bit.)
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-11 04:41 am (UTC)"Come away, oh human child
To the water and the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand." -- W. B. Yeats, "The Stolen Child"
Yes...
Date: 2016-04-11 05:29 am (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2016-04-11 01:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-11 10:14 pm (UTC)Yes...
Date: 2016-04-11 10:16 pm (UTC)I still jump inside of fairy rings. People ask why. I say, "Just in case anyone left the door open."
Re: Yes...
Date: 2016-04-11 10:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-12 04:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 10:32 pm (UTC)The first time I read this I teared up and went for a walk. This time I can leave a comment about this being a very moving poem.
(hold the door or don't but i am coming too)
Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-13 10:35 pm (UTC)The first time I read this I teared up and went for a walk. <<
Aww!
>> This time I can leave a comment about this being a very moving poem. <<
Yay! I'm glad it meant so much to you.
>> (hold the door or don't but i am coming too) <<
<3
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-15 06:54 pm (UTC)from someone who "loves" them.
The key point, I think. And then you learn that only others who, like you, have escaped from dysfunctional "love" relationships understand that family isn't magic. But that's okay, because there are a LOT of us out there.
Yes...
Date: 2016-04-15 06:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-11 01:51 am (UTC)I love this line. ♥
Yay!
Date: 2016-04-11 02:17 am (UTC)