Advice to Maryalise

Maryalise is Mary Alice’s Fairy Name. This is the advice

that the adult fairy might give to her ten-year-old self.

I See You

Many seasons have passed since first I spread my wings,

Tentatively flying from Denelia to Thistle and back again.

Seasons unnumbered I have known.

My wings have carried me

Through time and space and dimensions.

All see in me a fairy of grace and power.

I am Maryalise,

Daughter of Denelia,

Heir to Thistle.

I remember.

I remember.

And with that remembering,

I gaze into my past.

I see you there, Maryalise,

small,

dainty,

petite,

Wings hidden from sight,

Not knowing who you are or what you’ll be.

Ten magical seasons have vanished—

Seasons of flying and dancing and being,

Ten seasons of being the treasured daughter

of Thistle and Denelia.

All erased from your memory.

I see you there, Maryalise,

tiny and scared,

Your past has vanished.

Your future is uncertain.

Your hands grasp the hands of mortal aunts,

Seeking security, warmth and love,

Needing to understand and to be understood.

Hold fast to the love that is your birthright.

Know that your parents

(erased from your memory by fate)

have not erased you from theirs.

Their love will shelter and protect you.

Reach out to that love and hold it around you,

Shelter in their love, feel their love

Though you remember not their faces.

Easy it will be to love Aunt Lillian,

Harder to understand the fears that engulf her.

Soft and gentle she may seem, but look again.

See her inner strength and determination.

Look again.

Feel her magic,

Magic born of love and remembering.

Aunt Janet, brittle she appears.

If you trust what your eyes may see,

if you look only at the outward crust,

stern and unyielding she will seem.

Do not let her crush you,

or keep you from your destined path.

She has her reasons.

Look again.

Love radiates from her heart.

She is a protector,

a fierce guardian,

a warrior fighting dark magic,

Guarding you from harm.

Maryalise, listen with your heart,

Hear the flowers sing.

Hear the garden plead

for help,

for protection.

Hear the flowers whisper

of the things that you must learn.

Feel the magic deep inside you.

Know that you are who you are.

Know what you can do,

what you can be.

Guard against evil that would seduce,

beguile you,

lead you into the forbidden paths

that you must not travel.

The dark one will entice you.

Do not let her in.

Know this.

Though your mind has forgotten

your beginnings,

Your heart remembers still.

Know this.

Magic dwells within you,

Voice the spells and magic comes,

Twinkles in the darkness,

Shimmers in the sun.

Trembles in the voicing and weaves itself

as you will.

Though a veil of forgetting falls about you,

You are who you are

a fairy still.

Copyright 2012

Rose Owens

Note: At the time this poem was written, Maryalise was still appearing in my book as a ten-year old fairy.