Did your heart beat a bit faster when you read these well-known words…?
Maybe you even felt like a child again, on the couch with a glass of milk and a big
book, leaving bread crumbs in the forest with Hänsel and Gretel, sweeping ash with Cinderella, listening to the tunes of the Pied Piper, scaring the robbers away with the Town Musicians of Bremen or outwitting the giant with the The Valiant Little Tailor… ?
But what exactly is the magic with Fairy Tales…?
Well you know…living in the land of the Grimm brothers, I grew up with fairy tales and felt quite at home in this world of evil wizards and beautiful princesses, of witches, talking frogs and mean stepmothers…and trying to analyze them a bit, I found out what I like most is..
- they tell an easy to understand story
- they touch us on an emotional level
- they make us curious how the story continues
- the arc of suspense is masterfully woven
- they look at human nature without pink glasses but almost disgustingly realistic
- we often find ourselves in the stories /can identify with the characters
- they deliver their ethics in an easy to understand way
- no matter how bleak it looks..there will always be a happy end..
..so for me, they never lost their spell over the years.. and I really think we can learn from these Masters of storytelling and weave some of the magic into our own poetry..
Sometimes we take customers from the company I’m working for, to a technical trade fair and we make our way there along the german fairy tale route, visit the places where the Grimm brothers lived and where their stories played… and sometimes, in the bus while we drive, I grab the mic and read a fairy tale to them…all grown up men and women…engineers, company leaders…and guess what…they just love it…
So today, let’s write a fairy tale poem…this may be a piece, inspired by an old or new fairy tale or you may want to invent your own, modern one..? go for it..
You can also deliver a certain morale with your write or serve us some wizards, witches, gnomes, heroes, princes…whatever jumps to your mind, lots of different possibilities..but please..weave a bit of magic into our everyday…smiles
Here’s how it works…
- Write your poem
- Post it on your blog
- Click the Mr. Linky button below, and in the new window that opens up input your name and direct url of the poem
- Visit others who have taken the challenge
- have fun!
dVerse 
very cool prompt claudia…this was a lot of fun…and in researching some fairy tales found a few surprises along the way….very cool on reading them on that bus too…adults want to have fun like that…i used to do stuff like that in my training
ha…was sidetracked just for a few seconds…and you made it to the first place…and very cool that you were doing that in your training as well…
Gosh and begora, I had to include first my paean to Erin; and now it is off to find the fairies.
hope you’re finding some fairies for us glenn…so far i met only wolves and frogs… oh…and in case you find a prince…bring him along…smiles
welcome poets…just coming in from the deep forest…was visiting my grandma and met a wolf on the way…nah…was a NYC subway map..and got stuck in the evaluation process…smiles….so to all lovers of gnomes, goblins, bold princes and beautiful fairies…here’s your prompt…let’s have some fun together… oh…and i had so much fun that i even did a video recording of my fairy tale poem…smiles
Yay! Yay! Yay! 🙂 and an evening free and clear for writing? Did I say yay? Great fun Claudia…I would refuse to get off the bus! I’m going to get my magic wand 🙂
yay so the building inspector got out of the way quickly eh?
ha nice… yes..get your magic wand…can’t wait to read what you’re coming up with..
the question is…did you use that magic wand already to get the building inspector out of the way….hihi..
perhaps there is a frog with a clipboard hopping around somewhere…
i don’t care as long as i don’t have to kiss him…i had my frog-kissing share already…ha
and that is the worst part you know…smiles….ewww…
going to brush my teeth now….
tash…here’s the deal…i trade my german accent for your magic wand…smiles
DONE! The video was amazing! Loved the filter…very storybook-esq!
Glad you and Brian posted early so that we folks got a chance to ponder on the prompt. Had a feeling it was to do with fairy tales and magic and such as as Brian had mentioned the Brothers Grimm on his post too so, I went a bit ‘dark’ with mine… LOL
Great prompt Claudia!
was a great read bren…loved the morale you’ve woven in…but ya know…as long as we don’t know who it was, who whisked her away…there’s still potential for a happy ending…smiles
off to the salt mines to serve the public some brew…I will be back in some hours with some dusty tale to review…now of course a happy ending is a constructed view…so naturally…I will look for tales about what witches do…perhaps to me and perhaps to you…thank you for this delicious prompt…blessings…Edward
wow…your comment is almost a poem itself… salt mines and witches…can’t wait…
thanks for the tweet as well sir…i look forward to your tale….i mean poem…smiles.
You know this one is right down my dark and menacing forest path, Claudia. I’ll see what I can come up with–it’s a busy outdoor day in the garden here, but I’ll be thinking about it till it’s time to kick back and turn into a pumpkin. Thanks for manning the poetry bar and providing gnomes, frogs, milk and cookies.
the garden is a perfect place…the gnomes live there you know….just pluck one up and have him whisper a verse in yer ear….
ha…i thought this would be right up your alley hedge…have fun in the garden.. over here it was a wonderful sunny day..
Well, the gnomes were strangely quiet, but I was able to pick up something from the ghost of a bird, I think. Have a good night’s rest Claudia.
Claudia, thanks for hosting Poetics tonight. Great topic too, as I am all about Fairy Tales, Myth, Magic and Lore. The Grimms work are some of my favorites. Fantastic write-up. I have written quite a bit of pieces that fit into this genre and thought I’d share one of those I wrote previously, but now that I know we have some FairyTalers out there, perhaps I’ll venture down that road more often in the future with newer pieces. Thanks again
enjoyed your piece fred…loved the Grimms fairy tales when i was a kid…have to re-read some…wanted to take the old books with me today when i visited my mom…but forgot…
Well, it took me a while to come up with something; but alas, once I did it was really a fun write. I will be back to respond to some others after I take dogs for a walk. It is a day more like summer than spring here….and I want to get out in it a bit. I look forward to seeing what others have written.
have fun, walking your dogs mary…it was a warm day over here as well..went for a long walk in the afternoon..
Thank you for the prompt….Please delete my other post…(I double posted, oops) ~
Happy day to everyone ~
done… happy day to you as well… maybe i should go and cut some fire wood…smiles
Thanks, Claudia!!
Ooh I so want to try my hand at this, normally if I try hard enough, I’ll come up with something. I love once upon a time, but I love happily ever after more 🙂 I wonder what is the ending of Little Red Riding Hood? I think Grandma was hidden in the closet right? I can’t say I knew the Brothers Grimm were German. No wonder all the castles that we thought were Disney’s are Bavarians! I wish I had that bus ride experience with you. I wish, I wish..:)
smiles…good to see you og…and i look forward to reading what you come up with…i know you can…smiles….
I’m not the fairy tale writing kind of guy–not yet anyway–but thought I’d throw this one out there. There’s a link to my series, “Changed”, too, and it’s kind of fairy tale-ish. Going to go read now! Cheers!
http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/the-wolf-and-the-rose-2/
enjoyed your wolf poem charles..
Dusting off two gems of poems was just not “good enough”, and so I did the research on Irish mythology and came up with DRAGONROD, and then offer it with humble apologies for former aplomb.
smiles…i didn’t say it was not good enough…just wanted to challenge you a bit…and glad you wrote dragonrod…it’s great…
ok poets… i hate to leave with all the great poems pouring in…but def. need some sleep…so.. see you tomorrow…
sleep well claudia…we will try to keep the noise down….
What a wonderfully well written, intriguing prompt. I’m going to search around and see if my muses’ taste buds get tantalized. Thank you for the great idea, Claudia!
So I don’t know bu the way I approached this I’d have had to write a five page poem to capture the whole fairy tale that I chose so I ended up doing a fairy-tale-fashioned sampling of the Grimms story “Our Lady’s Child,” and left a link for those who need to know the rest of the story. 😉
Hope it works out okay! Thanks again!
What fun! I can’t wait to read everyone’s. I’m linking an old poem under my old blog at hubpages. It remains the hardest poem I ever wrote and a couple of you have read it. I also recorded it and was told it’s easier to understand that way.
Well – never a dull moment a dVerse … fun to haul out an old try at a sort-of fairytale and revise a bit … can’t wait to read what others come up with … thanks for the prompt Claudia, and the back-story info
http://nsaynne.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/from-my-tower/
Have been in a fantasy mood of late. Reading George Martin and catching up on the Game of Throne series before season 2! Glad to tease my mood with everyone’s poetic tales.
It took a lot of massaging, but I worked something up for you, Claudia. I thought I was finished writing a couple of hours ago. But anytime I write on paper, the poem requires a lot of onscreen editing afterward.
I had SO much fun with this, Claudia. One of my favorite prompts ever. 🙂
you did well shawna….lots of great imagery…
just getting back in the mix after a movie with the wife….got about 10 to read…good stuff….
What movie did you see? We went out for sushi, coffee, and books (Barnes & Noble) last night. I can’t wait until next weekend; the Hunger Games opens!
yeah i absolutely love sushi….t doesnt, but…def on the coffee and books…we do that often…really need to read hunger games before i see the movie…i am one of the last hold outs i think…
one perk for this town is that we have a dollar theatre…so we get movie about 3 months old at a buck…so you can take chances on some that you are not sure of….
Oh man, I really miss the dollar theaters in San Antonio. We had several. … You have to read the Hunger Games trilogy. You will go nuts over it. Seriously. Immediately.
The poetic enthusiasm here is infectious, and makes one light-headed just to be at recess with so many fun-loving souls. While Claudia gets her beauty sleep, many of us on the other side of the planet are still partying. Remember, the Pub is open 24/7 during challenges. Brian is a great babysitter and back up host too, of course.
We only have one of the dollar theaters, 3 bucks here, left; seats all broken and torn up, battalions of punks playing with phones & ipads during the film, making calls, talking; quite the challenge for the serious film goers.
yuck, yeah that does not sound like fun…they are pretty good here about someone watching what is going on in the theatre…
now they do stick you on the popcorn and drinks at our dollar theatre but it is def worth it when our regular theatre charges $15 a ticket for a movie…
Hi Claudia–a wonderful prompt–I’ve been very busy all day and couldn’t really deal with it, but it kept percolating in and out as well. I look forward to reading others but probably not till sometime tomorrow! (Or later today as now after midnight!) Haven’t turned into a pumpkin at least. (Yet.) K.
yeah after midnite here too…need to hit the hay myself…will be back int eh AM to check out over nights…peace poets!
Thanks again for the prompt…spent all night at work in ponder and more hours after serving in the trenches of Irish-American bacchanalia,reading ( mostly the Germanic tales) pouring over the strewn remains of my soul’s bones in the tides of cautionary stories…found more light is revealed in the spill of the dark,than the fill of light sometimes…many,bountiful blessings to you all…you guys/gals are a tremendous asset to the poetry community…gratitude…Edward
great moral and thoughts in yours edward…enjoyed it much..
good morning poets…back in the game again and ready to catch the overnights..
Well it’s a fairy story in that the fun lets the darkness…in
nice…some really great overnights….hope everyone has a great day…will pop back in a bit to see what is new….
i hadn’t planned on writing last night, but your prompt was just too FABulous to ignore, claudia! and with your delicious voice, i’m sure that everyone loves to hear you read them fairy tales!
it’s after 6am now ~ i had hoped to at least visit the first few links before going to bed, but i can’t see straight. i will be back to read as many as i can because i’m certain they will be wonderful fairy tales!!!
thank you!
smiles….there are some fantastic reads around for sure…much enjoyed yours as well dani…dinnertime with the fairy tale high society…smiles
My friend, RM, writes non-fiction. He came up with the idea for a poem about an oak tree and revolution and asked me my opinion of his poem. (He is poetry challenged, you see, like a man who fears heights.) Great idea, I say but how about some mystery and insecurity. So he asked me to edit his poem. I nudged him closer to the edge of the cliff. He had one foot firmly on the edge while I encouraged him to dangle the other over edge and wriggle it in thin air.
nice…that’s great…and that’s what friends do…challenging us to go always a bit further than we usually would..
Very cool prompt! Surprisingly, I ended up with a poem that is – gasp! – really positive and uplifting 😮 Not quite sure how that happened, I’m usually knee-deep in the darkness. Was still a lot of fun, looking forward to reading some other offerings today.
just getting in after church…got a few to catch up on…fun fun….
smiles mary…a little light is not bad occassionally….
Great topic Claudia, I love Fairy Tales, especially Grimm. Lucky you to be able to live in a place with such amazing history!
Weekends are really busy for me at work, and not as much time to write as I would like. But I always try to check in here at d’Verse and see what’s new in Poetics. I have one fairy tale/fable that I have written. Sorry it’s not new, but since I had it I decided to share here anyways!
that’s fine…enjoyed the piece ginny..
Not sure if my submission technically falls under the category of “fairy-tale”, but it’s somewhat similar.
i’d say that flying pigs def. fit the prompt perfectly…smiles
Wasn’t sure if Mother Goose was close enough to Brothers Grimm, but now I see they’re all in the family 😉
Yay! Found some time and energy to write something other than work-related stuff. It’s nice to be back in the Pub!
great you made it tony…also good to hear that the preaching went well
I love once upon a time… makes me feel like a kid again 🙂
hihi…yes…me too..it’s great…isn’t it…?
Love the article Claudia and the idea of faerie tales. I’m working on one that I hoped to get up; but I’m living “life interrupted” these days. Just when I think I can something else stops me. I’ll try to have it up for Tuesday if possible. Such a great prompt. Always special when you tend bar!
thanks gay…take your time…fairy tales need time to get written…they have a life on their own…
This was fun…thanks for taking me here Claudia!
alright poets we have about 2.5 hours left…so if your fairy tale is percolating lets have it….smiles.
As best I can tell, I’m half way through my fairy tale poem. I promise to finish it soon, and will add the link for OLN Tuesday.
great… can’t wait to read…
alright poets…played catch up with the overnights and closing the pub doors now… but think i will stay another few minutes in the empty pub and inhale the scent of dragons, gnomes and beautiful fairies that still hangs in the corners…before i switch off the lights and leave for work….thank you for dusting a bit of magic upon my weekend…smiles
I loved doing this one.
Thank you, claudia, for such an inspiring topic.