Avalorna, The Enchanted Keep and the Luminae Whisperkin Faeries: a cyhydedd fer

June 30, 2023

Avalorna, The Enchanted Keep and the Luminae Whisperkin Faeries: a cyhydedd fer

This week’s #Whatdoyoysee #192 photo prompt is a picture of a castle. To write a poem, original story or a caption.

For the visually challenged, this image shows a castle rising out from the water, probably a moat. The structure is shrouded in fog and part of it is reflected in the water. At the back, you can see mountains covered with trees.

Avalorna, The Enchanted Keep and the Luminae Whisperkin Faeries

In the seep of the misty dawn
there lurked a rampant leprechaun

A leprechaun with a grand plan
To storm the castle, if he can

The faeries watch from the castle
What’s that in a big brown parcel?

‘tis bobbing afloat in the moat
and green with a beard like a goat

Its come from Amazon no doubt,
A faery guffawed with a shout

Hah! ‘tis but a Jack-in-the-box,
and helmed by a little green cox.

Do you mind, said the leprechaun
That’s unkind. My name is Sean Björn 

So please, I’m not Jack-in-the-box
Bejeezus! I’m Björn-in-a-box.

(could Björn be a raiding Viking in leprechaun disguise?)

Please let me enter your castle
Er… no, you look like a rascal

Then, against gods and banshee fates
The faeries slammed tight shut their gates

Björn’s packet boat rocked with the shock
How can he unlock the locked lock? 



To be continued…

‘tis bobbing afloat in the moat and green with a beard like a goat | Digital watercolour painting©️Lesley Scoble

MY THANKS TO:

#Whatdoyousee Prompt
Thank you Sadje #WDYS for setting the scene and inspiration for my new poem: Avalorna, the Enchanted Keep and the Whisperkin Faeries.

Prompt Photo Credit: photo by Tim Rebkavets

The Tanka Tuesday Prompt 
If I may, I should also like to thank Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday prompt for encouraging me to write the poem in syllable form and the penultimate and final couplets.

The #Weekly Poetry Challenge #326 is to write a syllabic poem to include synonyms for Close and Open.
I hope and trust that my words Shut and Unlock meet these criteria?

Welsh Poetry Forms
Last but not least, I thank Murisopsis, A Different Perspective for the many Welsh Poetry Types that she introduced me to. I’d never heard of them before. Avalorna, the Enchanted Keep is my first attempt at the Cyhydedd Fer.

NOTES 

Cyhydedd Fer, Welsh Poetry Type
A cyhydedd fer is a rhymed couplet consisting of eight syllable lines with an AA rhyme scheme. 
Find more info here

Banshee 
Sidhe (pronounced shee) is Irish for fairy. The origin for ‘ban’ is from the Old Irish word ‘bean’, meaning woman. In which case, does this mean that our common expression, “Well done, old bean” means, Well done, old fairy woman? 
_{[My dictionary: late 17th cent.: from Irish bean sídhe, from Old Irish ben síde ‘woman of the fairies’]}

Packet boat
Aside from a floating Amazon parcel, a packet boat was a medium-sized ship used in the 18th and 19th centuries to transport mail, passengers and freight. In Great Britain, packet boat services were called the Packet Trade. In the 19th century USA, steam packet boats transported supply and personnel along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to forts and trading posts.

Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright, (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.