May 2013 Challenge: Fairy Tale Poems

Fairy (or folk) tales that circulate in popular culture over centuries provide interesting prompts for poetry, art and music. Most ancient folk tales exist in a variety of versions. You may have seen the Disney version of a folk tale—and noticed talking birds that didn’t appear in the version your mother read to you at bedtime. In the opera, Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (see http://www.lyricopera.org/tickets/productiondetail.aspx?id=13268), the gingerbread men come to life. In poems based on folk tales, sometimes the story is just retold in verse. Other poets modernize the story, as, for instance, giving it a feminist twist. The poet may use satire or humor. The story may be retold from the perspective of the witch or wolf. Or the poem may have a serious message related to a social issue or historical event.

Here are three contemporary fairy tale poems:

Cinderella Entertains a Daring Idea

With supper dishes done,  

Cinderella grows tired   

of waiting for the Good  

Fairy to come and wave   

her starry wand, turning rags   

into ball gowns, glass slippers   

on bare feet. No need  

for gilded pumpkins.  

She would settle for a living   

wage, better hours,  

time-and-a-half for overtime.  

Alone, Cinderella (fed up with living  

in an exile of dust bins  

and breakfast crumbs) stands  

before the hearth and refuses   

to sweep the ashes or rinse   

out her sisters' bloomers,  

leaving the latter to billow like ghosts  

in a bucket of their own dirty water.  

She dares to imagine a union  

of broom-wavers, seven abreast   

in the streets. Swept away   

in a start by a sharp rebuke   

from the other room.  

And she finds herself back   

in the cottage on Stepmother Lane    

where she gathers herself   

from her palette of straw  

humming "We Shall Overcome"   

in a resolute chorus of one. 

~ Nina Corwin

"Cinderella Entertains a Daring Idea," from The Uncertainty of Maps by Nina Corwin © 2011, CW Books, CIncinnati, Ohio. Used by permission of author and publisher. This book can be purchased through (http://www.readcwbooks.com/corwin.html).

Hansel and Gretel

When mother read me  

Hansel and Gretel  

I could not believe  

even a witch   

would bake a child.

Even as we read  

thousands of children  

were tossed into ovens,  

small shoes, shirts,  

dresses, pants    

stripped away, piled up  

and the last toy  

to which small hands  

clung for comfort  

pried from reluctant  

fingers.

~ Wilda Morris

Published in On the Dark Path: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry, ed. Anita M. Barnard (13 Moons Press, 2013), p. 48. This book can be purchased via amazon.com. The official release of the book will take place on May 11, 2013, in Dallas, Texas. For more information, see http://www.wordspacedallas.com/2013/05/11/?cat_3.

Little Red

Life is not the same   

since the wolf showed his face.   

I no longer dally  

along the path picking daisies,  

finding sheep or dogs   

in the nimbus clouds,  

whistling the song of robin  

or cardinal. Seldom   

do I traverse the route alone  

and never at night. He comes  

in my dreams, his hot breath   

on my neck, or on grandmother's,  

his cackling laughter, his leer   

saying more than his lips,  

his sharp teeth ready to cut holes  

in my sanity. At home, sheep,  

goats, even my own border collie,  

take on some aspect of the elongated  

chin, deep-set eyes, teeth or tongue   

of that wolf. Though safe, I shudder.

~ Wilda Morris

This poem, with some slight changes, has been published several times. It was first published in The Homestead Review (Fall/Winter 2006), p. 25. It also appears in two anthologies. They are: Bleed Me a River: A Domestic Violence Anthology, ed. David S. Pointer (forthcoming from Westview, Inc. (To purchase this book, see amazon.com or check it out on http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11885652-bleed-me-a-river.) and On the Dark Path: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry, ed. Anita M. Barnard (13 Moons Press, 2013), p. 49.

Fairy Tale Poems on the Internet:

A collection of poems based on fairy tales published in The Journal of Mythic Arts can be found at http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/poetrylist/fairy_tale_poems/. Unfortunately, the journal is no longer published.

The Portal to Fairy Poems is found at http://anafflictionofpoetry.blogspot.com/2011/06/tuesday-portal-to-fairy-tale-poetry.html. This list of links was posted by A. J. (Alicia) Ponder.

You can find links to several fairy tale poems, including one by Amy Lowell and one by William Butler Yeats, at http://www.poemsaplenty.com/poems/category/index.php?id=46.

“Fat is Not a Fairy Tale,” by Jane Yolen - http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/056.html (from Such a Pretty Face (Meisha-Merlin Publishing, Inc., 2000).

“The Wolf’s Postscript to ‘Little Red Riding Hood’,” by Agha Shahid Al - http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15823. From his book, A Walk Through the Yellow Pages (SUN-Gemini Press,1987).

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” by Anne Sexton, http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15300. From The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton (Houghton Mifflin Company,1981).

“Cinderella,” by John Dickson, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/142/4#!/20594633. From Poetry (July 1983). You can access other Cinderella poems from Poetry at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/search/?q=cinderella. Put other fairy tale names (such as “red riding hood” in the search box at the top of the page to find other fairy-tale poems from the archives.

“Fairy-Tale Logic,” by A. E. Stallings - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/238826. From Poetry (March 2010).

“Here come the Fairy Tales,” by Brenda Williams - http://my-ecoach.com/online/resources/7175/here_come_the_fairy_tales1.pdf.

There are a number of YouTube videos of fairy tales reconsidered in verse by Roald Dahl. You can access one of them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUlq2OA_Z0M. They are from Dahl’s book, Revolting Rhymes.

Fairy tales enter into the lyrics of Amy Grant’s song, “Fairytale.” The lyrics are posted at http://www.poemhunter.com/song/fairytale/.

If you still want more, search the Web!

 

The May Poetry Challenge:

After reading the example poems above, and perhaps following some of the links to fairy tale poems on the Internet, write your own poem based on, twisting, modernizing or in some way making use of a fairy tale from your childhood. If you are not from the U.S., you may use a folk tale from your own culture; in that case, please include in your email a link to that story on-line (in English), or send a summary of the story with your poem.

Poems must be in English. Your poem can be free verse or formal. If formal, please specify the form. Please submit only one poem during any particular month.

The deadline is May 15. Poems submitted after the May 15 deadline will not be considered.

Copyright on poems is retained by their authors.

Due to formatting difficulties, I prefer that poems be left justified and not have indentations or spaces in the middle of lines.

Poems published in books or on the Internet (including Facebook and other on-line social networks) are not eligible. If your poem has been published in a periodical, you may submit it if you retain copyright, but please include publication data.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send your poem to wildamorris[at]ameritech[dot]net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for [dot]. Be sure provide your e-mail address. Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner, so be sure that you put your name, exactly as you would like it to appear if you do win, at the end of the poem. If you wish, you may submit a brief bio or link to your website (if you have one), in case your poem is selected as a winner.


© 2013 Wilda Morris