The Real Reason the Queen Hated Snow

The Real Reason the Queen Hated Snow
cover artwork 2007 Kurt Ozinga.

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The Real Reason the Queen Hated Snow

a collection of poems, stories and mythos miscellany

Annette Marie Hyder

Introduction

The bright and dark ribbons of myth and legend, folk stories and fairy tales wind their way sinuously through our lives, are braided into our cultural references and weave themselves into fabric–whole cloth–that our collective subconscious is cut from. But we never have enough. We also, all the time and every day, make up more. We invent and reinvent Pinocchio, the grasshopper from The Ant and the Grasshopper, Snow White and Red Riding Hood -- so that we have new tales to tell and fresh perspectives for the characters that we use to play ourselves and understand others.

In this collection I hope to share my delight in the things that our dreaming minds love to play with.

If you imagine myths and legends as a dark but beautiful rainbow, imagine too that at the end of such a dark rainbow there is not a pot of gold, but a pot of bones. These stories are made from ancient things.

Throughout this book you will find interspersed, between the pages of poems and stories, addendum material, "gilt-edged esoteric." For Example, one of my poems is entitled "Challah." Challah itself is deep in symbolism and has a most interesting history as it relates to the Jewish faith. Following the poem, "Challah," is a synopsis of Challah’s history and a recipe for making Challah.

It is my hope that you, the reader, can open up to absolutely any page -- just leaf through and pick a page at random, and surprise upon something delicious, peruse at your pleasure and savor at will.

Annette Marie Hyder

Archetype Enablers

His beard was ghostlight blue,
blue like veins
seen through too thin skin,
and pale, like small albino things
with no eyes to see in the dark.

His beard was ghostlight blue.

Lamentations seeded fear.
And it was said
that each hair grew from sorrow,
Sorrow being the name he christened
every new wife with.
How many wives would that be?
And how many sorrows passed away
to his joy
and bristling beard?

Lamentations seeded fear.

How did he win them?
His mouth teemed with terroring teeth
above his cudgel like chin
and the hands that partnered
his lamprey mouth
were long nailed; bent odd at the wrist.
But that mouth won at wooing
youngest-prettiest-most-dear.
His hands caressed the corpses
to be.

How did he win them?

There is a need in some
of the purest
to immolate themselves
to the strong.
Each Sorrow feared
to let herself fear
for fear that would
make fears come true.
And each Sorrow's footsteps
trailed unerringly
to Bluebeard's awful room.

Some immolate themselves to the strong.

The final Sorrow
was a special sorrow
a sorrow just for him
his best beloved
and tenderly cherished
cozen coddled victim.
She beat the archetype beast
she bested the brute in the test
of curiosity's punishment. And yet

who was the cozened
who was the coddled
who the cherished victim?

Day Longs for Night

The night
lets down her long dark gypsy hair
spins on her bare feet,
to stomp her passion
for moths, black blooms,
bats and all things witchy.

The moonlight,
her Mona Lisa smile,
mysterious and subtle, suffuses her
wild beauty
with a gentleness so fragile
it can be broken by
the ephemera of clouds.

Pieces of her hair
catch in the swaying trees
to curl and dry by morning's light
into Spanish moss
as if the trees
could not bear
to let her go.

And she had no princess slipper
to leave upon the lawn
but she left dewdrops
crystal beads of perspiration
for day to come upon.

Day spends his time plotting
ways to find her in his arms -
the sunset a prayer, a beacon,
a campfire, for her wandering to find.

Tears of the Moon

Tonight, the hail stones falling
in this bad weather
striking hard on this long night

are cold like moon
and shaped like moon
and pour forth from her silver eyes.

Hush child and I will tell you
why we call them
Tears of the Moon.

Long ago
in time's deep darkness
Earth and Moon were sisters two.

These sisters both were young
and untouched
waiting brides for life to bloom.

Soft and yielding
round and pleasing
fecund Earth sister blossomed quick.

Hard and haughty
cold and distant
Moon sister shied from every touch.

Finally Father Spirit tired
of waiting for Moon sister
to become a wife;

said she must always
attend Earth sister
must be the mistress of the night.

Then the harsh hails
started falling,
stinging stones from bitter eyes,

Tears of the Moon
still fall to this day.
And now my child you know why.

Hush my child in this cold storming
list the brittle moon's grief cry.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the following publications where these poems first appeared:

Blue Fifth Review – "Dancing With the Minotaur" and "The 19th Floor"
C.A.U.S.E. - "Batuk and his flying carpet"
Cayuse Press – "Delilah Against Myself," "Green Door" and "Tidal Wave"
Conspire – "Demeter’s Soliloquy"
Electric Wine – "Odin’s Debt: What Price Knowledge?"
Empowerment4Women - "The Muffin Man"
Fables – "The Golden Bough"
Eclectica Magazine – "Gordian Knot I"
Fantasy, Folklore & Fairytales – "The Ivory Tower" and "Sea Siren"
INTHEFRAY Magazine - "The Strength of Stones"
Mentress Moon – "A storybook face" and "Snow White"
Poems Niederngasse – "A Fairy Tale Come True," "Channel to River" "Lilith," "Loki Confesses," "Nine Hearts," "Pandora’s Rebuttal," "Renaissance Moon," "Speechless" and "Valkyrie Winds"
Samsara Quarterly – "Like some sugar loving ant"
Snakeskin – "Gordian Knot II"
Steel Point Quarterly – "Fairytale Flax"
The Pedestal Magazine – "The Hating Seed"
Thunder Sandwich – "The Witch"
Twilight Times – "Archetype Enablers," "Day Longs for Night" and "Tears of the Moon"
Verse Libre Quarterly - "Little Red Riding Hood"
Wicked Alice – "Craig Le in Myth and Art"

Author Bio

Annette Marie Hyder is a freelance journalist/editor, artist and author. She selfishly--yes, selfishly--involves herself in issues and causes that she feels will impact the life of her daughter, issues such as: feminism, global conservation/ecology, human rights, literacy and education, empowerment and identity and just plain fun (she admits to being interested in these things on their own merit too.)

She is the founder and curator of the international feminist project Facing Feminism: Feminists I Know. She is Contributing Editor for Poems Niederngasse and Editor for PNG's Pancultural Exploration of Love. Her poetry has been translated into German, Italian and Spanish, included in numerous anthologies and published in book form. Her articles appear in print throughout the United States and internationally while her publishing credits encompass both print and electronic World Wide Web publication. She is on the editorial board of INTHEFRAY Magazine and is the Respect Editor for Empowerment4women.org

Annette sees life as a poem that is constantly altering its form to accommodate one's world view/experiences: sometimes a sonnet, sometimes haiku, sometimes graffiti on a wall. She believes that in love you should not say it with flowers, you should say it with words. Diamonds, however, are always acceptable.

A blog, Ad Libitum, is coming soon and promises to cunningly explore the purview of her cognizance. For more information, visit her web site.

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To order this book:
Format: PDF, HTML, Palm
Payment Method
PayPal -or- Credit Card -or- Fictionwise
List Price: $4.95 USD ebook

Reviews

"Have you ever met someone whose words had wings? I don't mean the imaginary kind that kind of make you think they can fly. I am talking about actual wings that make words soar and dive and travel to foreign lands and even make your own backyard seem like a fairyland. Annette Marie Hyder's words have wings; they take you everywhere and even bring you back home with a smile and a sigh. She is a poet, a writer but I fancy her more of an author. The kind of author that enraptures her readers and they clamor for more...."

Larry Jaffe, Poet Laureate, Youth for Human Rights

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