What then is a fairy tale?  What elements are necessary?  And what are the purposes served in these?

The Good Fairy Tale
by Michael Doyle

From deep within the wishing well
Comes the invention of the fairy tale
It's hard to keep the stories you know
As generations diffuse these from the shadows

There in the hallowed place of convergence
Rests the faded details of their resurgence
Traces of all these fables in the sublime
Resting this side of the moon since ancient times

There is a love between beauty and her beast
The crux of which survives in as much as least
Once upon a time begins many of these fairy tales
As the rest is but a variance of misfortune's details

From the Book of Job on down is borne the familiarity
That hard times can befall even the blessed royalty
Princes become who they are as always subject to emulation
Reads the rich fabric woven across the storied nations

While their beauties rely on not just on their outside
For such is next to nothing to the wisdom before her pride
Honest and wise they nearly always are beyond all measure
Present in equal shares is the inner beauty which we treasure

Everywhere in these tales, magic is at source for all
With every fairytale does its best to casually reveal
That all that happens, happens for the sake of happy ending
If not in reality, at least while we are pretending

It's that moment of joy in the ever present eucatastrophe 
That each tale provides for in it is the hope of humanity
Lived happily ever after as set out in each such tale
Justly done to instill that righteousness will always prevail

Courage has its fortitude which comes into acting well
In the face of fear, the hero's journey continues its trail
To love and be loved must be that it is freely given
And each restoration is but at tale of that which is forgiven

Each story of these are necessary to relay the good of will
All of which is necessary to the telling of the fairy tale
Listen deeply now children and you shall always hear
How goodness will always win as evil is vanquished and disappears

(c) June 19, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved