“Inspired by the magnificent Orava Castle in Slovakia where movies such as Nosferatu were filmed. It has it’s own secret vampire history too, sadly relegated to the world of mythology. Yet with heart and mind wide open those of a certain heritage know this not to be true, for the clues, the reality are all around”

A scratching nib

A wild, wide mind
Always the secrets to find
A net cast wide, a spiders touch
Along life’s saddled shore
I study and write
And i cast my mind
Into a void of change
To discover a key for to open a door
Where the shadow of darkness dwells
A shadow of night
Of that i am sure
An ancient ‘cast’ on the ground
Thus the old ones awaken
From a slumber so sound
To arise from that death-like sleep
A life not alive
Yet an existence for sure
But not when a human around
If only we knew them
If only we dared
For a chance to converse at a cost
A chance of a dance
A terrible dance
Around and around ye swirl
Dare ye not blink
Dare ye not look
Dare ye not ask the way
For the Lord and the Lady
With time on their side
Will be dancing the night away
A keeper of old
With stories untold
A glimpse of something unknown
A buried past
From aeons ago
A freedom hardly known
So all is quiet
In this shadow land
We dare not steel a glance
We dare not follow a scent
Of roses and death so true
A scent so pure
A scent so old
Not living as flesh surely is
So go ye not there
Be wise in your ways
For all of this story be true
Tis not only in movies and poems of old
Where the dark ones seem to dwell
They have always been here
Have always been known
Yet never or rarely seen.
So much for poems
So much for prose
I came unhindered in modern garb
For i sensed and i felt and i knew
That deep underground
In a family crypt
They slumbered in caverns so cold
The last of their kind, i know, i am sure
So leave not a trace, tiptoe away
Leave no DNA on the floor
No pinprick of blood upon the ground
Not a breath, not a hair, not a sound
Leave them in peace
Leave them to sleep
Turn the key in the lock when you leave
The castle is quiet
The castle is dark
The corridoors empty and black
For this is the time
And the hour of the day
When myth and reality bind
I will tell ye no more
I must hearken away
With footfalls slipping on cobbles
Catching my breath
Hardly daring to breath
I take one last look in the gloom
The stories of old
The stories told
The scratch of a pen in the dark
The ink runs dry
I gasp
I cry

And no other sound in the dark……

Added 10th March 2026

‘moon.willow@ntlworld.com’

‘The Keeper of Scrolls & Guardian of the Grail’