Mythic Writers Blog

Today, I am devouring poems and quotes that stir my mind.  Here’s a snippet from my blog correspondent gig on Eric Maisel’s Creativity Central blog:

I am thinking about this today mostly because this is the anniversary of the publication of my favorite Edgar Allan Poe poem, “Annabel Lee.” (The poem was published in 1849, two days after his death.) My favorite lines in the poem: “And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side/Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride.” I don’t know why, but those lines have given me a thrill ever since I was a child, and whenever I read the poem, I itch to write something spooky and atmospheric in response.

Some other lines that stir my muse:

From “Lost” by David Wagoner: “Wherever you are is called Here,/And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.”

From “Tapu’at House” by Charles de Lint: “In the Fairy House,/Coyote sleeps.”

And this line from Terri Windling, and I don’t remember where it’s from I think maybe from The Wood Wife: “rustlings in the midnight wood.” (The full quote I have in my notebook for this is: “Rain and sun shall feed me now, and roots, and nuts, and wild things, and rustlings in the midnight wood, half-mad, like Myrddin, wandering.”)

These lines are purely mythic, even when they don’t speak of any one particular myth.  It’s an odd thing.  I feel them in my heart, I feel their connection to that mysterious web of myth that holds the world together.  I don’t know how to pinpoint it, but the connection is there.

I am getting ready for November and NaNoWriMo.  I already have a story idea–ghosts and some demons, so well within my beloved mythic fiction genre.  Yet that line from CdL keeps haunting me.  “In the Fairy House,/Coyote sleeps.”  We’ll see what I decide to do.  Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the poems.