The Elven Realm 

 

I was walking through the meadow,

swirling through the wheat, when suddenly

I came upon a figure,

Sweltering among the summer’s heat.

He said to me, “Do not step farther,

For I have done so and felt doom higher than the stars.”

I took him for a lunatic, and continued on my way,

Taking in the sunshine and

Stepping on the whey.

Soon I came upon, a patch of trees,

They almost rose up to greet me, saying,

“Hello, my young one, tell us, do you sing?”

“Well, I can certainly try,” I replied.

So, there I commenced a’ singing

A song transposed here:

Sway music sway!

Hear what I have to say today.

I found you lying in a bird’s basket

Asleep with the hay

Your soft locks of hair

Fell evenly from your face

Sway music sway!

Oh, hear what I have to say today.

 

I then halted my singing,

For a circle of people stood in the clearing

They were also singing:

Beautiful lullaby lull me to sleep

Touch this soft rosy cheek

And care for me always

Beautiful lullaby lull me to sleep

The Shepard’s in the meadow

To count the sheep for me

 

Here they saw me and grinned,

I observed pointed ears, and not an ounce of sin.

Tall and handsome they beckoned me in,

“We heard you singing,” they said,

“How beautiful your voice is kept,”

“Kept? How is a voice kept?” I ask.

They laughed and danced and didn’t answer,

Except to show be a bird’s basket full of hay.

They took my hands and spun me around,

I whirled and laughed, but maintained  my senses

I was offered wine, but a sound, refusal was my reply.

It had only been a moment

And then they disappeared.

I called out for them, but they had vanished.

It was just as I had feared.

I continued my walking, gazing at the forest floor

Swimming through the air,

Like a summer’s evening of fire and flare.

A squirrel perched in a tree

Chattered to me, to sing.

I complied and here it is written:

“Oh dance my loves oh dance!

Feel the music move your feet

Sit not once but collapse if you must

You are only young once!

Dance my sisters and brothers

Let the swirling joy bring you to see

Of the shining beauty

That shines inside each and everyone”

 

My song brought the image of the elves once more

They were still dancing and asked me to join

I refused, still over their disappearance sore

One of them bowed low to me,

And told me of the magic that transported them to

Different places.

He sang it in a song:

We dance, and we feast

And the forests well we treat

And we cheer, and we sing

And never shall we die.

Time dances with us

And so, does the air

We are in one place everywhere.

At the end of his song,

He entreated me to wear their feathers

To eternally join them and be joyous forever.

I asked to stay with them for only a year,

Then decide on my answer

To this they replied, “Never”

The dazzling lights drew me in, 

The smiles and joy were mine to win

I joined hands with my neighbor, and danced we together

Forever and forever and forever…