Poetry Friday: Huge Sparkly Unicorns

Who better to host the first Poetry Friday of back-to-school season than Tara at A Teaching Life? If I remember correctly, the school where Tara teaches opens next week. Huge sparkly unicorns to you for hosting our poetry party on your last "free" Friday, Tara!

I have unicorns and other beasts of fantasy on my mind this week. Like any good geek, I am (have always been) an avid fantasy reader.

Did it start with my father's love of Star Trek? 

This guy, featured in the closing credits, used to freak me out as a kid.
He's from the classic episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver."

My father also handed me Frank Herbert's fantasy series, Dune, when I was a teen. Loved it.

I won't bore you with a list of my favorite fantasy novels and authors (Diana Wynne Jones -- several of her novels have been adapted for movies by Japan's Studio Ghibli, popular with anime fans). Let's get straight to one book that tops my best reads.

Buy a signed copy at ABE Books.

The book, about a unicorn who goes on a quest to prove she is not the last of her kind, came out in 1968. It is a classic fantasy novel with mythical beasts, a band of unlikely friends on a quest, and a monster standing between them and their goal. But it is also, as author Beagle points out, an intentional satire of the fantasy genre, filled with little anachronisms and characters who are aware their lives are part of a tale that must play out within the "rules" of any good story.

Why do I love this book so much? Like the best fantasy novels, at its heart, The Last Unicorn is about humanity. There is Schmendrick the schlubby magician, who must witness true courage before he comes into his power. And the unicorn herself, transformed for a time into a human woman, with all of humanity's foibles, needs, and mortality (unicorns are immortal).

So earlier this month I was at Otakon, a huge Japanese pop-culture convention in Baltimore with my daughter. We had just walked in with her friends, and were checking out all the cool cosplayers. (Studio Ghibli characters were popular.) Never heard of cosplay? Go here.

From Baltimore's City Paper.
There is a full gallery of amazing
costumes at the Baltimore Sun.

I turned a corner and literally walked right into ... guess who.

Squee! It's PETER S. BEAGLE!!!

Fangirl moment! (As in, over the top fangirl moment. My thirteen-year-old had to take a few steps away from me in order to avoid embarrassment.) Mr. Beagle was super nice. I bought a book, which he signed. And we chatted. He's touring the country with the animated film "The Last Unicorn," showing on big screens. I can't wait until it comes to Baltimore.

Of course, I had to reread the novel. Its sequel, a novelette titled "Two Hearts," came out in 2005 and won both the Hugo and the Nebula award.

What does this have to do with poetry? If you've read The Last Unicorn, you know that the novel is filled with snippets of poetry and pieces of song, including portions of a long, heroic ballad glorifying the bandit Captain Cully (and written by himself).

Yes. Lucky for us, Beagle is a poet. 

Dragonsong
by Peter S. Beagle

I breathe fire,
sleep on gold.
I dine on princesses —
that’s why I’m so old.
Nothing like a princess
to chase the cold.
I breathe fire.
I am old.

I breathe fire,
scorn mankind.
Heroes come seeking me —
I’m easy to find
Young and brave and gallant,
handsome and chaste,
Praise their courage,
and their taste.

The rest of the poem, and some cool dragon art, can be found at this PDF.

I'll leave you with a clip from "The Last Unicorn," the movie. Poetry Friday is HERE, at Author Amok next week. I promise to make it all sparkly and fantastic.