In response to Claudette’s Weekly Writing Challenge #12: Inspire
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Inspiration comes in countless forms and guises. There can be a great deal to be learned from even a fairytale. This poem was written and published several years ago in a small volume titled, Singing Over The Bones. Today, when I stumbled upon it, while looking for something to post here, I realized that it wasn’t quite completed. Inspiration can come from ones own written words, on occasion.
Cinderella
Yours was a world of dreams
where fairy godmothers
granted wishes and glass
slippers, held in the palm
of a charming prince,
could only fit one slender foot.
Where an orange pumpkin
could become a golden coach,
and mice could grow to be footmen.
How long did it take
to learn that charm can swiftly
become a burden in timelessness
of happily ever after? That pumpkins
have a very short shelf life, meant only
to be cooked and eaten? When
did you discover that glass
slippers can shatter at a misstep,
rendering tender soles unable
to plant themselves firmly
on a chosen path, or dance quickly
away from tiny scampering mice?
How long before you knew
that fairy godmothers
are really only witches
of another hue, come to teach
us the most difficult task
of sorting this from that?
Elizabeth Crawford 4/18/09
Soul's Music 
One of the incredibly important, proven useful life lessons I’ve learned is how powerful a trigger of change Perspective can be. Shift it, and the world shifts in relation to the thinker. The hard part is when it is forced by circumstances (as in Cinderella-growing-up’s case, in your poem), but, done with voluntariness and purpose, it alleviates the craziness of moving on. (grin)
“fairy godmothers / are really only witches / of another hue”
Loved that part. 😉 Cheers.
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So good to see you. And I would agree that perspective is an incredible trigger. Like waking up to a whole new day, new world and beyond, with just that slight shift of seeing. It not only makes moving on easier, but the letting go also becomes simpler as well. That’s one of the reasons I really enjoy working with the fairytales we grew up on. They have a tendency to become archetypical to most of us, and that archetypal image must change if we are ever to do so, don’t you think? We all love the idea of happily ever after, feel cheated when it doesn’t come our way, then wake up to what it might really mean to our persons and our world. Glad you are back,
Elizabeth
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