(Wendy Cabell, published in Writers At Play Presents: Our Legacy, edited by Daisy Barrett-Nash, Equal Arts, 2022. From July 20, 2010, feast day of the Chukhloma Icon of the Mother of God, of Saint Elijah the Prophet, Saint Elswith (wife of King Alfred the Great, Saint Edburga of Caistor, Blessed Rita Josefa Pujalte y Sanchez, and Righteous Martyr Maria Skobtsoba. Image above is Saint Margaret of Antioch, from a 14th century Book of Hours, from here.)
Homeland Honah Lee
(after Puff the Magic Dragon (Leonard Lipton, Peter Yarrow); and inspired by the life of Saint Margaret of Antioch)*
The daughter of a pagan priest, Margaret converted to Christianity [and soon was] tortured and thrown into prison. Whilst there [she] was swallowed by [a] dragon, but emerged from his side unscathed and carrying a Cross after praying for aid. --from Medieval Manuscripts Blog
Oh, Puff the Magic Dragon, how'd he come to be?
Swallowed down Saint Margaret crowned, but the Cross set them both free.
Moonlit nights still find them ushering at sea,
Till mist parts through and heart beats new on the shores of Honah Lee.
Childhood turns lucky, with protector Puff.
He knows the ways to brighter days when the going gets too rough.
Where sunsets melt like ice cream, heart sets to glow,
And with the tide moonbeams to ride, so changed now the below.
Oh, Puff the Magic Dragon, how'd he come to be?
Swallowed down Saint Margaret crowned, but the Cross set them both free.
Moonlit nights still find them ushering at sea,
Till mist parts through and heart beats new on the shores of Honah Lee.
Brushed by rainbow breezes, a fragile heart can sway,
In ship’s sweet ease through Heaven's seas, rig-ready to this day.
Course she veers is steady, steering wheel it gleams,
For travelin' the bandwagon through each generation's dreams.
I never did have children, as Puff so sagely notes,
"Where's the child with longing wild to sail my magic boats?"
At a loss this leaves me, don't know what to do.
Till see that page is too a stage--and torch gets passed to you.
Oh, Puff the Magic Dragon, how'd he come to be?
Swallowed down Saint Margaret crowned, but the Cross set them both free.
Moonlit nights still find them ushering at sea,
Till mist parts through and heart beats new on the shores of Honah Lee.
**From prompt: "Music we love is part of the legacy we build”, so choose a favorite song from your past. Note favorite lines of the song. Freewrite on memories and emotions the song evokes, on verbs stemming from such memories and emotions, on personifying something about your song as close friend or family. Craft what stands out from your freewriting into a poem, perhaps using a verse from your song's lyrics as the refrain of a Bop style poem, and/or putting bits of the lyrics interspersed in the poem in parenthesis. From Daisy Barrett-Nash’s Legacy Poetry of July 7, 14, and 21, 2021.
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