PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

The mist crept along the ground and in the dark an owl did call

The silence of the wood disturbed where William son of John did fall

Blood stained and torn, exhaustion like a lovers sleep

The desire of death over pain, just another wish to keep



In the pond bathed a sidhe, ignorant of the mortal world

Content to dip in cool water breaking placidity with a swirl

She heard something fall, by the sound quite heavy

Very close to where she sat, just beyond the levee



Cautiously she did approach and with immortal eyes

A man she found lying there, breathing with ragged sighs

She knelt beside him and gently asked his name

"Wlliam, I am called, but I know not from where I came"



"fought in battle and now I am here, but how I do not know

Who art thou so fair and kind, and how didst thou find me so?"

She stroked his hair and held his hand, as her heart did pound

"ou art lost in the wood?, she replied ?but now thou art found"



By her gentle touch, he found the strength to stand

"ome with me and I will tend to thee, poor unfortunate man

My home is but a short way away, and I will ease thy pain

Lean toward me if thee have need, for I have nothing for a cane"



They walked in measured steps to an earthen mound

At the top lay a ring of stones, resembling a crown

Nine times around the ring, a lightness formed inside his head

With a force to make him sleep, as if in his very bed



In the wood only a hill, with a stony crown

No evidence of the two, would to mortal eyes be found

For through the gate of the ring they entered the fairy mound



His wounds were healed, no evidence of his pain

He thanked her for her kindness, no trace of hurt remained

As wonderful as this enchanted place was to be

He wanted his home, farmland as well as family



"My dear William, listen to the words I speak to thee

For thou art in the fairy world and we are now thy family.

Time passes here in such a way, thou canst understand

attend that the time of mortals, here does not command"



She knelt before him and continued with saddened smile

"Thou hast healed in our world for what seems but a short while

But many decades have passed in thy world, though it seems but days

I must tell thee of complexities of the fairy ways"



"When I found thee a time ago, in the wood where I bathe

thou had but breathed thy last breath so it was a choice I made

to bring thee to what thou sees with thy very eyes

whilst here thou art immortal, out there thou woulds't die"



She kissed him lightly,he tasted her single tear

"Stay with us William and thou wouldst never feel the years"

She held him close to her, to hear his beating heart

And lovingly did she sleep, knowing wisdom she did impart



While she lay and rested, while she slept

William son of John to the gate silently crept

And walked the circle alone nine times

Hoping his world is what he would find



And an awakening in his mind did he embrace

As the surroundings came clear to his face

Of all that happened before the wood

And a pain settled where he stood



Nothing seemed as it should be, no familiar sights

Nothing as he remembered from that fateful night

And the pain, which settled in his bones

Where the last that he felt upon coming home



The fairy awoke with knowing pain

That she would never feel her William again

And when she stepped outside the fairy ring

She found his body, a mortal sting



"My life I do renounce, no longer immortal will I be

I shall pass along to blessed lands. William, I shall go with thee"

And by his side at the foot of the mound she did lie

And with William son of John, did she die.



Now all is legend, a tale of love bittersweet

Of the sidhe who loved a man she found dying at her feet

If you come across a ring of stones atop a fairy mound

Tread lightly upon the graves under the lush grassy ground