The Days of the Unicorn
I remember when the unicorns
roved in herds through the meadow
behind the cabin, and how they would
lately pause, tilting their jewelled
horns to the falling sun as we shared
the tensions of private property
and the need to be alone.
Or as we walked along the beach
a solitary delicate beast
might follow on his soft paws
until we turned and spoke the words
to console him.
It seemed they were always near
ready to show their eyes and stare
us down, standing in their creamy
skins, pink tongues out
for our benevolence.
As if they knew that always beyond
and beyond the ladies were weaving them
into their spider looms.
I knew where they slept
and how the grass was bent
by their own wilderness
and I pitied them.
It was only yesterday, or seems
like only yesterday when we could
touch and turn and they came
perfectly real into our fictions.
But they moved on with the courtly sun
grazing peacefully beyond the story
horns lowering and lifting and
lowering.
I know this is scarcely credible now
as we cabin ourselves in cold
and the motions of panic
and our cells destroy each other
performing music and extinction
and the great dreams pass on
to the common good.
Phyllis Webb (1980)
Author's Note: "'paws': dream overlap of lion and unicorn."
Improbability
By dawn one stands yonder and gazes here, the light of a golden horn
leading
the path ahead. And by night, oh, how a ray of silver casts highlights
and
shadows over the trees of the forest, revealing the silhouette of the
great
horned beast! Captured, was he, only by the words of the white-gowned
girl,
who saw him once and told the others, “It was a magnificent creature,
with an
ear that never surrenders to you and a head that never lowers. With a
tail
held proud and a beat as sure as the light he radiates, his horn
captures your
fascination, and his gallop, oh, how it grasps your soul!”
But when they heard this, there were none that believed, so she spoke
again
and said, “Have you so soon forgotten the willing suspension of
disbelief?
What is improbable is yet still possible!”
They were still skeptical and the young girl was scolded for lying, so
she
told no more and no one ever again saw the great horned beast, but he is
there
by dawn with his golden horn, and by night his silhouette shows against
the
silver rays of the moon. And forever will he be there in the forest,
majestically waiting for the white-gowned girl to come once more. But
when she
does she will not see him, for it is not probable, and probably
impossible
that he was ever there at all.
"The unicorn,she said,was a marvelous beast,shining with honor,wisdom and strenth.Just to see him strengthened the soul." -- from The Unicorn in the Maze by Megan Lindholm
God himself must needs be traduced, if there is no unicorn in the world. -- Edward Topsell
"The question of historicity and actuality with regard to gods and unicorns is a relatively trifling matter which may be left to antiquarians and biologists, for both the god and the unicorn had a business to perform greater than any mere existence in the flesh could explain or provide a basis for." -- Odell Shepard, The Lore of the Unicorn
Now I will believe that there are unicorns... -- William Shakespeare, The Tempest
A wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn. -- Tibetan proverb
Some things you have to believe to see -- Anonymous
"Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length." --Ctesias; Indica, 416B.C.
"Like a lion, without fear of the howling pack; Like a gust of wind, ne'er trapped in a snare; Like a lotus blossom, ne'er sprinkled by water; Like me, like a unicorn, in solitude roam." --Hymn of Buddha
"Today it is said that the unicorn never existed. However, it is marvelously clear that when the unicorn was first described and centuries later when the tapestries were woven, everyone believed in unicorns." -Marianna Mayer, The Unicorn and the Lake
