On Having Slept One Hundred Years

 

 

Waking,

Sleeping Beauty

lifted a wrinkled hand
to her white hair.

 

Reviews

[Gandré]

I interpret this different than the other reviewers. This is an aera of forever young generation. It is strange, when older people look in their face 20 y. YOunger but hands and other parts say it is much older person. Who are they ? I think a balanced person is accepting getting older with dignity. This poem is sussessful because it hits the Zeitgeist or the nail on the top. I loved it.

[Emily B]

I'm getting a chance to re-visit old favorites. Fairy tales and movies give us the endings we wish we could have. Sometimes we can write our own endings, sometimes we can't.

[1809 Black Plague Decem..]

---loved this piece very much
It's silly, but reminds me of the movie Willow
"Hurry Willow...."
"I'm a beautiful young woman..."
and Willow uses a wand to change her back
and it's an old woman, with much at loss


you told a great story, would love it in narration, :P


----mishel

[Emily B]

I read it a few days ago and couldn't think of a suitable comment for the review. I suppose finding it in my read request I really must tell you how much I loved this! Happily ever after doesn't always come with youth and beauty. Sometimes you have to find a few wrinkles first . . . thanks for another look at a well-known story.

[Siddartha Beth Pierce]

An intriquing write definitely - thank you to cndsurfer for sharing it with me. Definitely a topic I had never thought of - reminds me of a Grimm's fairy tale as their is a bit of despair to this...Thank you for sharing.
Light,
Siddartha

[James K. Blaylock]

Wow, this one is so great. I watch a lot of movies (from horror down to Disney)myself. What a wonderful thought... Sleeping Beauty awakening to be so much older. Keep up the great writes.

[Blackbirdsong]

I always wondered about that myself. How could she sleep for 100 years and never age? I'd like to get her secret. Of course you could also look at it as if someone who'd spent their life only thinking about themselves as being beautiful suddenly waking up to the realization that they've grown older. I guess we'll have to wait around and see if this ever happens to Paris Hilton. lol

take care :)

[Dj Golden]

Though short you really express a lot of ideas in this, because of the mythology of Sleeping Beauty. She can only wake with true loves kiss, so that has obviously happened, but since she has white hair and a winkled hand she's been waiting for a long time, or instead perhaps she just went to sleep, but you are commenting on how beauty is ageless. Some interesting ideas. If I had to change anything I'd change the title to better capture which one of these concepts you mean for your reader to interpret, however that is just me trying to find a way for you to improve this, I'd myself leave it the way it is, because sometimes it is forcing your readers to conceder things that makes the writing so memorable.

[Armon Badill]

better late than never :)
maybe she was having a nice dream :)
and we are that dream, who knows for certain what this universe is, we could all be merely a dream in the rem sleep of some incredible mind. When that mind wakes, will we vanish as if we never existed at all?
I don't think sleeping beauty is allowed to have white hair, :) I think the fairy tale police will get after you on that one :)
this is a beautiful piece by the way :) the beauty of it lies in the waves of ideas it generates :)
AB

[Sandra]

This reminds me somewhat of sleepwalking through life and suddenly 'waking' to discover that your life is about over and you wonder where the days went to. The sudden realization that you are no longer young and vibrant but old and decrepit.
Interesting take on an old tale.
Is this written in a certain form? I saw that someone mentioned "terse verse" below. I'm not familiar with that. I did notice the 2-4-2-4-4 syllable count and the repeated 'W' sounds?
Nice work! Simple words.. but they say so much. I like it!

[Tawny O'hara]

Well this just about says it all!

I peruse old pictures of myself and say, "I was pretty then, wonder why I didn't know it."

Is it possible to reawaken that person that is still inside me and hiding behind the wrinkled hand and white hair. No....