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Image for the poem The Elfin Way

The Elfin Way

(A song by Poppy, accompanied on her fairy lute)

Beneath the trek to
Heaven and the highway to
Hell there is
The elfin way
Where no path leads

Catch it
Before dawn pales into light
Hold it
Where dusk snakes into dark
Follow no path
Where fairies dance and goblins grow their gold

We slither through wyld tangles
We vanish in wyrd mist

But you must
Feel wonder
Smell the sweet musk of awe
Taste enchantment on the tip
Of your tongue you must

For fear you will hear
And doubt will sprout
On top of your toes
Don’t trust
That spell of dread
On your heels and run

For the old treks and highways
Demand your life and your gold

Let them scare you
How much is enough
What sacrifice too much
Before you know
You are free to live
To the ode and pace
Of your own song

Written by VeronikaB
Published
Author's Note
Inspired by a scene from the eighteenth-century ballad Thomas Rymer, where the hero is abducted by the Queen of Elfland, and she says to him:

O see not ye yon narrow road,
So thick beset wi’ thorns and briers?
That is the path of righteousness,
Tho’ after it but few enquires.
And see not ye that braid braid road,
That lies across yon lillie leven?
That is the path of wickedness,
Though some call it the road to heaven.
And see not ye that bonny road,
Which winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where you and I this night maun gae.

And Patrick Curry’s Essay "The Third Road": Faërie in Hypermodernity
(published in the Handbook of Animism)
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