Mythical Creatures

— Paul Kopetz

Jaguar
You will never see him coming but coming he is!
Wrapped in reverential darkness he is watchful, stealthy, and vengeful. He is the midnight of your heart.

JAGUAR

Confess your terror; live in dread of me
Whose awesome presence humbles human kind.
Acknowledge that you never can be free,
Because I rule the darkness in your mind.

The shamans grasp for my elusive powers
To guide them in their mystic healing rites:
To cure the creeping illness that devours,
They must invoke my potency, my might.

I can cast a shadow on the sun,
And make its dazzling brilliance disappear;
Turn day to night, declare I’m the One –
The god who claims your reverential fear.

My stealth and menace dominate your art,
Because I am the midnight of your heart.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2011

Mermaid
How beautiful and alluring her song! How comforting her voice! Yet another lustful drifter has succumbed his perverted mind to her beguiling charms and perished.

MERMAID
(excerpt)

Combing our tresses, singing sweet melodies,
Basking in sunshine which plays on the sea;
What can compare with this simplest of pleasures –
Living in peace with the powers that be?

Men call us sirens, devious, sensual,
Luring their sailors into the deep,
Gently seductive, ruthlessly dominant,
Calming the fears of those we would keep.

Innocent scapegoats, we face accusations
Scurrilous, nastily spiteful, unjust.
We do not want them, but still they malign us,
Their bodies and psyches perverted by lust.

Driven by visions of lecherous orgies,
Sailors lose sanity; ships run aground.
Mermaids are blamed, but we do not call them.
Betrayed by carnality, seamen are drowned.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Bunyip
Land of the lore is silent except for distant whispering of our ancestors. They watch, they listen, they pray. The choice is ours — take heed or face the unknown!

BUNYIP

This ancient, vast, and untamed land
Held mystic secrets at its core;
Her people strove to understand
And legends grew in tribal lore.

But how could they express the fear
That wove itself within their songs –
A brooding presence lurking near,
And haunting lonely billabongs?

I, the monster none has seen
Inhabit nightmares, twist the mind…
There is no terror quite so keen
As that dreamt up by human kind.

My spectre flourished, fed their fright:
The menace in their hearts has grown…
I, the Bunyip, claim the night,
Embody thus the grim unknown.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Yeti
The white icy stillness of the high Himalayas is broken only by blinding blizzards. Footsteps can be heard on the snow or is it just a stalactite dripping with human foolishness?

YETI
(excerpt)

The highest mountains in the world
Where howling gales and blizzards reign,
A hostile, unforgiving place,
But this I choose for my domain.
And I embrace this freezing hell,
Its aching desolation wild:
This savage land of rock and ice
Has harboured me, its outlaw child.
In these wild regions I am free,
Far removed from human kind;
They are the foe whom I must flee
To places they can never find.
Heart-stopping cliffs and deep ravines,
The treachery of powdered snow,
These are my refuge, rugged, steep
Where my pursuers dare not to go.
They dread me, but they hunt me still;
They tempt me with deceitful lures,
But my distrust denies their thrill,
And so their throbbing fear endures.
They curb their terror; call me “freak”,
And try in vain to capture me –
My stronghold is my wild mystique,
My life, the soul of liberty.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Unicorn
The magic of ancient forest guards his secrets. Many have tried to best him. A precious few have tried to understand him. Perhaps it is our deepest secrets his hooves carry?

UNICORN

Delicate, graceful, equine perfection,
Enhanced by his spiraling horn,
The unicorn’s fear is insatiable hunters
Who hound him from earliest morn.

Timid, elusive, he’s frightened of people –
There are so few he can trust;
An innocent virgin is his exception,
A maiden unblemished by lust.

Still nervous and wary, he’ll shyly approach her
And settle himself by her side.
O let her not be suborned to betrayal
To gratify some kinsman’s pride!

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Coyote
Who is he really? A friend or foe? A trickster or sage?
Be very careful what you wish for. Things are not always what they seem, especially when he is around.

COYOTE

Discerning people know I gave them fire –
All right, I stole it, but they had their share –
I taught them all the skills they could desire,
The crafts that lent their lives that extra flair.
They’ll tell you I’m a wily trickster, too –
Although my schemes can sometimes come unstuck –
But when I win, as I so often do,
The losers won’t admit it’s more than luck.
So folk are puzzled when they think of me,
Am I truly wise, or just a fool?
God or buffoon? No way can they agree.
So long as they’re still guessing, I am cool.
For me their muddled thinking brings no stigma:
It suits me fine to be a cult enigma.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2011

Aziza
To fear or to revere them? Is our confusing existence merely an act of grace? Let’s follow the beat of a drum into their world of magic and mystique.

AZIZA

The mortals have never once seen us,
But they know of our presence here,
And our aura, which they call magic
Is the potent force they revere.

The gods bequeathed to us wisdom,
But also a sacred trust –
To care for these simple people,
And guide them in ways that are just.

Their hunters learn our forest.
As they track with wary stealth
They absorb Aziza wisdom,
The heart of all their wealth.

Our being is everywhere present,
We guard them and we reassure.
As long as these people respect us
Their culture and life will endure.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Sphinx
Incessantly shifting sands of time do not weary or age him. His profound eternal wisdom harbors paths to salvation and kindles hope.

SPHINX

I, the Lion Pharaoh, gaze
Forever to the rising sun.
I see beyond the desert haze,
And past the aeons time has run.

The wonders of this ancient land,
Its mysteries, its riches vast,
Like me, were buried when the sand
Drifted across our fabled past.

Now strength and wisdom are my gift
To those who understand my role,
And wondering, their eyes uplift
To see in me great Egypt’s soul.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Phoenix
Soaring up high with grace and majesty his renewed beauty dazzles like a morning sun. Can we all rise above our internal struggles to a better tomorrow?

PHOENIX

I am that wondrous, fabled bird,
Revered and honoured down the years.
I am the legend all have heard;
My life, like sunlight, kindles hope.
For humans fear mortality,
But know that I regenerate;
Through me they glimpse eternity,
A light beyond that final dark.
My time is coming as it must –
I dread that cataclysmic hour,
But know my heritage, and trust
That death, for me, will bring rebirth.
This faith may help to blunt my pain:
The cleansing fire will bring its gain
The immolation I must bear.
And I shall struggle back to life.
And so I build my deadly pyre,
Laced with fragrant herbs and spice,
So I, the bird of sun and fire
May live through death and rise again.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2010

Leprechaun
Now you see him and now you don’t! Cheeky and mischievous, he bursts with joyfully infectious energy. Catch him and all your wishes will come true.

LEPRECHAUN

Elusive little man in green –
He’s widely known but rarely seen.
Do not provoke this ancient sprite
For mischief is his great delight.
But if you catch this little man,
It’s common knowledge that he can
Grant any wish, for that’s the fee
To have his captor set him free.
Mostly, though, he wards off harm
With quintessential Irish charm.

S.Z. Hadgraft 2011