Once upon always there lived a beautiful Princess and her name was Shree. She lived in a high tower in the Castle of Dreams….and the secret to her beauty was that she wrote the most beautiful poetry. Everyone came from distant shores to worship her beautiful words.
But one day there came to the Land of Enchantment, a dimald, a most worthless creature ever known to man or beast for he was an ink drinker of poetry and his blotter was full in soaking up all of the hopes born in the land of dreams……..The children cried…..The women wept……chickens stopped laying eggs and worst of all the flowers turned to weeds without the beautiful poetry of the Princess.
But wait as all hope was fading away…just as they were all about to start making scrambled eggs for breakfast out of oatmeal. There came on the horizon……a Knight……but not just any Knight……a Poetic Knight
Named Jess the Poetman……and he was a Knight in Shining Armor and he rode upon a dragon named Dandy who used to be evil by going around to campfires and breathing fire on beef and over cooking it when the campers were making kool aid……but now had been tamed by the words of the Poetman to only do good…..but to cook beef right.
And the Poetic Knight came to the land of Dreams….and the children all cried, “Please Jess give us the poetry back again…..so Jess hopped on the magic dragon, Dandy, and flew out to he mythical Land of Granny’s Farm.
There Granny lived and tried to do her best farming in the upside down world of Bamaland. Jess found her digging spuds in a pond with a cane pole. He asked Granny what he should do to help the people….and how to win the hand of the beautiful Princess……Granny whispered in his ear and told him just what to do for Shree and how to make the whole world smile again.
And the dragon…..Dandy, flew the Poetman high up into the clouds as they left Granny’s Farm and there they found beyond the horizon’s shore a moonbeam of sprinkled light called the Mysts of Noelle…..the realm of the mythical Lady of the Clouds.
She bowed to the Poetic Knight and said to him, “From the stars calling I have heard the starflake’s gentle falling in prayers from the tears of the children below……so here, take this pen from me for the words which the Princess will write all anew and again.”
But the Poetman said, “What if the evil dimald comes with his blotter again to take the ink away?”
But Noelle sang a most beautiful song which told of the ink from the pen which was really butterflies and if the evil dimald ever came with his blotter again…..the words would just fly away to where he could not reach them and return again to the people when he left for the children to enjoy…..because they were especially sick of scrambled oatmeal for breakfast!
So Dandy flew to the Princess who was crying tears of diamonds. For she was so precious….and they gave to her the pen and she began to write her beautiful words again………and in a far away place called Lynda Land……..there was a maiden named Lynda……and she had been sobbing for the words which were no more……but all of sudden…..she thought ….she thought she heard….the birds begin to sing again……But could it be???????
And back in the Land of Dreams……the children stopped crying…..the Fair Heather noticed that the weeds she was hoeing were turning into flowers again…….the pretty Jennifer stopped crying when the stars started to twinkle again……and the noble Jonathan stopped crying because the rainbow had colors in it and it was no longer clear…..and yes, even the beautiful Hannah stopped crying because her chickens laid eggs of gold instead of oatmeal.
But out of the dust there arose the evil dimald again with his blotter…but when he whipped it out of his bermuda shorts and tried to blot out the poetry……the words became butterflies and flew away…..and the wind of their wings carried him off the ground higher and higher until he was bound in the prison island of the sky of the never not when…..the place where poetenders and their bad poetry go and are taught the fine art of the eating of beef…..because there is nothing worse than bad poetry or the phrase, “That soy steak tastes just like real beef.”
Everyone cheered when the dimald was gone. They drove their tanks around, had a beer and sang Cat Scratch Fever and other good guitar banging songs.
The Poetman then asked the Fair Princess if she would be his wife and live happily ever after….and she said,”Yes”.
Everyone cheered again and Dandy turned into a winged horse and the couple flew away to Granny’s Farm……to live in peace and joy and love……with Shree planting her poetry everyday and watching it bring light to all the world…..the en…………………..
………………but one morning when the Poetman was tending the poetic crop, he noticed that there were strange words growing in the ground. He asked the Princess what they were. For he did not know the meaning of them…..they were spelled LIE……CHEAT and STEAL.
The Princess just told the Poetman that he must have read them wrong for she loved him so….that they had to have instead been the words……Eli…..Teach and Teals.
The Poetman trusted his wife. For what else could he do for he loved her so…….but the next day she was gone from the Farm and he could not find her. He searched everywhere, but finally the leaves chattered to him a tale that Shree was in the Tower of Dreams…….and she was living there with the dimald……..for she had turned him loose from the prison of stolen poems, because there was not room in her heart for the adoration of two poets……..for she could only love herself.
The Poetman went to the tower and called and called to her, but she would not answer…..but she finally sent a note to meet her in the Land of Noelle……there she would explain all.
For any word from her his heart would beat……for it had been so difficult, believing the things he was hearing from the people of the land…..they would not even let him talk to the children anymore for they were saying that the Princess was telling everyone he was not a poet at all.
But when he and Dandy arrived to the Land of Noelle, a strange woman was there who looked a lot like Shree. She gave both Dandy and the Poetman a special ink from the Princess which they were to drink, for the woman who looked like Shree said that the dimald had cast a spell upon the Princess and only the words from this ink could break the spell.
So they both drank of the well spring of ink to save Shree once again……but Dandy immediately closed her eyes and fell unto a sleep unto death…….The Poetman cried, “What have You done?” and staggered forward…..but the dimald was there and parted the clouds and the Knight fell through to the ground below.
The butterfly words rushed to hold up their master, but the heaviness of his heart was too much for them…..and he landed hard in a strange land he had been before……the place of the Rainbow’s End. A place where the Valkyrie play upon weapons of love…songs of healing for a braveheart’s soul.
All of warmaidens marveled at the Poetic Knight and how beautiful his butterfly words were as they filled the air with the sounds of voices unheard……they pondered their tale in the sweet gentle sleep from which the Poetman would not awaken……for his crystal heart was shattered beyond repair.
The Valkyrie played their weapons but they could not heal the unhealable…….so silence became the treasure of the Rainbow’s End……..but one day as a maiden tended the Knight she said…..”If we can not heal his heart……perhaps we can create a new one.”
Everyone was quite pleased at this and immediately sang Fred Bear by Tedly Von Nugent.
Carolyn came forth first and said ……from my heart I will give unto him HOPE.
Soon Lorie came forth and said….from my heart I will give unto him FRIENDSHIP.
And Theresia came forward and said…..from my heart I will give unto him TRUST.
Soon each of the Valkyrie were bringing their special gifts……Heather bestowed NURTURING
Star gave ACCEPTANCE……Sunshine brought JOY……Jackie gave LAUGHTER……
Rachel gave KINDNESS……and even the fabled Gator Woman, Renee and she gave the most special gift of UNDERSTANDING and a most special Lady named Vicki gave the Poet DREAMS and Carolyn gave him the TOMORROW’S DAWN.
But still there seemed to be something missing which needed to hold that poet’s heart so it could be healed…….and then it came…..for the Butterflies told all the truth to the Princess’ sister….and brought her forth from Lynda Land……and she gave to the Poetman what the other’s in the Land of Dreams could not…….BELIEF that he was the Poetman and had been so wronged.
And with that his heart came together and was born again in the hands of God…..and the Valkyrie played the healing upon their weapons of love…….and slowly the Poetman came back to life from the deepest of deepest sleep.
The journey of the Poet was long but under the care of the Valkyire his heart was knit by the strings of their bows and woven by the metal of their golden hearts.
But the dimald and the Princess gone bad continued their ways. They spoke evil of the Poet to everyone……but their words were no longer the poetry of beauty….the Butterfly pen now refused to give her ink…….so now she had to write with grass….and that only left stains which detergent couldn’t even get out.
But meanwhile back on the ranch, word had reached the Poetman’s friends namely Baron von Catwacker, Alexander Pappy Peacoin, Buster BaJesus and 3 burley neighbor women named the Charm Sisters. Women adept in the art of the eating of beef, shooting flies off of molasses and the fine trade of the pulling of plows.
So they loaded up the magic buffalo rug and went for an extended visit to the Rainbow’s End to visit their Poetic friend.
Everyone was so happy to see each other that they even kissed the Charm Sisters. Eula, Woosette and Vargina. Women whose combined weight was 1,480 pound as verified by the the locker scale as of July of that year and whose hobby was bending pliers and gnawing trees down with their teeth.
A neighbor it was told once reached across Vargina’s plate while she was feeding……they never did get his thumb back, but he did receive a discount on gloves from the Mercantile and Lingerie store because they used him as a model. Dan became famous and married a plump woman out of Minnesota who canned minnows for fishermen.
Meanwhile the story continues……Every good person was not pleased with what was done to the Poetman.
The People of the Land of Dreams even were not amused anymore. The words of the Princess now became mosquitoes and bit everyone while they were eating oatmeal eggs for breakfast and worse yet now the cows were giving vinegar milk. It was not the breakfast of champions anymore.
Eventually, the people in the Land of Dreams said, “This sucks like Minnesota. We live in the Land of Weeds. This place is a crapper. Let’s get out of Dodge!”
So they packed up the fry pans and took a look for the last star on the horizon and ventured out of the dust to a place called the Rainbows End.
There the Dreamers came to the Poeticland where only the crops of love, honesty and caring were grown from plants watered by kisses and hugs and tenderly cared for with compassion.
And with their understanding and kindness the Poetman began to write again in a world now reborn…….and the magic pen no longer needed to write, because there was no longer a fear of blotted out words or dreams, because the Princess and the dimald were now imprisoned in the high tower of bricks where they existed. For the key to freedom is the truth, but with their lies the keys to life had been taken away.
But in the Land of the Rainbow’s end the Poetman had found another land. A land of reality bordered by Faith in Belief in God and the Gifts of true friends……..For that is the truest of treasures……always to be remembered……our God and sweet friends are the Gift of Life.
ONCE UPON ALWAYS
ONCE UPON ALWAYS I THINK OF YOU
IN CONFESSIONS OF THE WAY MY HEART SEES
IN A MAKE BELIEVE REALITY
WITH THE MOON BOWING DOWN CASTING HER LIGHT TO THE GROUND
THE NIGHT EVER BRIGHT WITH SHOWERS OF STAR LIGHT
IN THE WAY A REAL FAIRY TALE PRINCESS SHOULD BE
CROWNED BY THE MORNING IN THE DEW OF THE SUN
A KINGDOM IN THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY
A REALM WHERE ANGELS PASS BY
CLOTHED IN THE COLORFUL SHOW OF AN ETERNAL RAINBOW
THERE BEHELD EVERYWHERE THIS PAGEANT OF THE THE AIR
ADORNED BY THE LOOK OF HER EYES
THE WIND DANCES OCEANS IN WAVES OF YOUR PRAISE
THE WORLD DAWNS EACH DAY FOR SURE
ALL FOR THE JOY OF HER
ADORING HER TO STAY AND TO NEVER ONCE GO AWAY
PART OF THE PLACE OF THE HEART WHERE DREAMS NEVER DEPART
SO SHE LIVES THERE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.