Little Histories

[bardiphouka]

Written for: brigits_flame and for APAD
Prompt: Germinate
genre:poetry
word count: 151




Lancelot


Are myths unreal?
Do they need some small
seed of truth, some germination
that leads from what was
to what should have been?

Does it matter if the future
overlooks my good deeds
and blames me? Am I the
villain in this tale of love
and love turned destroyer?

The poets have never quite
got how beautiful she was.
Or how he was so tied
into this mythmaking Merlin left,
that he forgot our love.

I was crazy once you know.
Was nursed back to health
by the woman who was the
root of my insanity, but not,
one might say, my madness.

Arthur had gone mad with history.
I, although raised in magic,went
mad with the magic of her eyes.
This I say. When love, through
the seeds of love and madness germinates.

It is more than history or myth.
It is the moonrise of the heart.

Comments

[lacombe.livejournal.com]

Great poem -- I like the implication that the burden of writing the "legends" fell upon Merlin, and that his filter, plus the passing of time, have been part of the shaping of what is now believed to be true. I also especially appreciate this stanza:

"I was crazy once you know.
Was nursed back to health
by the woman who was the
root of my insanity, but not,
one might say, my madness. "

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

I am not used to responses that delayed..thank you. Someday I might do the whole Arthurian cycle.