There is no Cinderella poem, Marcus. A perfect amalgam of word and emotion and courage and truth that will be rescued by an erudite prince from the undiscovered dark, transported in a pumpkin carriage from obscurity to enduring fame in an instant. The unread poem just dies, returning to the emptiness one disconsolate word at a time.
Probably depends less on poet or prince and more on a fickle glass slipper.
Magic, Marcus, magic! Even the best of poems needs that bit of sparkling fairy dust, a conspiracy of stars and moon to shine, that cloak of invisibility so it can slip into hearts and minds and be declaimed by birds and flowers in unimagined spaces. A poet has to be part cloud, part rabbit and part magician.
And what happens when the clock strikes twelve?
my secrets have secrets
my dreams have dreams
I know, my poems write poems for them
Phantom Road 
I wrote a poem about a Cinderella type myth, who didn’t emerge from a pumpkin, but from the darkness of men who never wanted to see her in the light of day. You can find her here, with footnotes that explain her emergence.
https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/for-lilith/
Secrets are told in whispers
Dreams revealed in daylight
I know this because I write poems.
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Loved the myth of Lilith and your poem. Thanks so much for sharing.
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The poem, in its recursive allusion to hope, counters the prose where Cinderella fills in for all that is magical – that in itself is sufficient for defeat. Reminds me of a Bulgarian friend who finally got hold of Tagore and reviewed it as, “nice fairy tales” 🙂
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No magic, no hope! The last fairy godmother retired after Cindrella. 🙂 But one thing to be learnt from fairy tales is stubborn optimism, despite looming shadows of witches and goblins!!!
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No, I think every new poem adds to the energy of poetry in the world, so even the unread (which are dormant rather than dead) swell that energy as part of the whole. 🙂
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Dormant rather than dead! Need a dose of that optimism for sure! Thank you Rosemary!
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I absolutely love this: ‘Probably depends less on poet or prince and more on a fickle glass slipper’!. And yes, it’s magic that is needed for the poems to write poems and a poet does have to be ‘part cloud, part rabbit and part magician’.
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Thanks Kim 🙂
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Every bit a Cinderella piece to be reminded of!
Hank
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Thanks Hank!
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I agree with Rosemary, our poems have a tendency to emit energy out into the world which in turn joins with others and fills the void. This is beautiful!!❤️
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That’s a great sentiment Sanaa.. trouble is I think poetry doesn’t really reach as many readers as it probably should, not that it stops me from writing or hoping!!! Thanks so much!
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Indeed, “The unread poem” like the unshared word, just dies… alone.
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Yes, sadly! Poets are die hard optimists then, keep plodding along!
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Who said stubbornness couldn’t be a gift? 😀
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Ha ha! A gifted lot, us poets then!!! 🙂
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😀
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your halibun, Marcus, transformed itself into the metaphorical glass slipper. I really, really like the voice in this! And especially so, because of a poet’s (elevated) composition of cloud, rabbit, and magician…only to be deflated by unimaginative birds and flowers in voids of spaces. brilliant writing
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Thanks so much…glad you liked it. I think browsing through the archives of my blog led to this post!
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Way to “use our words. Lol
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Oh… love this. The unread poem just dies. I need some magic dust PRONTO!
You know, I’ve written poetry all my life. When I started blogging poems, there was a time when I had few readers, if any, and sometimes it did feel like the poems withered by being unread. But I wrote more, and my practice was more serious, when I started sharing instead of my lifetime of solitary writing. So I think, for me anyway, you have hit on something… it really does help to send the verses out into the world. It encourages. Related, I am glad I have caught some of yours!
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Thanks so much Marian. I agree sharing online makes a huge difference to the writing process, definitely inspires. But one has to wonder if self publishing is the logical next step or the way to reach outside the circle of poets to other readers will remain a challenge for poetry in general.
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I could talk about this all day 🙂
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Will admit, I have written my own Cinderella poem, with a twist, that there’s no Prince Charming, at the end, but a Princess, for me. And no, I haven’t uploaded that poem, onto my blog, yet. Maybe some day, I will, when I feel the time is right, for it.
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Hope you do…
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I think I go through the Cinderella syndrome about once a month. I read work such as yours and I feel I am just not quite measuring up. I am a self published author. I am part of a network of writers of all genres who self publish. It has opened a whole new world to me.
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I am still exploring self publishing ..good to hear that it worked well for you. Definitely would be great to network with other writers…but I don’t know how to make it out of that group and reach other readers… thanks for sharing.
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I believe that the moment a poem is committed to paper be that ink or lead on parchment or digital typeface on screen, then it lives, because you the writer birthed it so but perhaps you are asking ‘If a poem is written in a place in which nobody sees it does it exist?’ As you can see I enjoyed this enormously.
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Absolutely..the proverbial tree in the forest! Thanks Paul..
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A super clever conceit. Very fun. k.
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Lovely lively meditation on the ways of poetry. And what a wild incantation a poem’s end.
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Thanks Brendan.
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I enjoyed this a lot. The “magic” of poetry is a mysterious thing.
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Agree..thanks so much for stopping by.
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