Fairyland is anywhere, you know

Greengage Jam

When I came back from Fairyland
At five o'clock to-day,
Belinda hadn't noticed that
I'd even been away!
I looked at where Belinda stood,
Belinda looked at me;
And then she gave a yawn and said,
"There's greengage jam for tea."

The way I go to Fairyland
Is up the attic stair,
And through the attic door and round
Some boxes - and it's there!
It's just between the arm-chair and
The clock without a face -
And nobody would guess it was
A really fairy place.

But Mother says that Fairyland
Is anywhere, you know;
You've only got to think it's there -
And there it is. And so
I've thinked that this is Fairyland,
And so it has to be.
But no one knows it's Fairyland,
Excepting only me.

I like to go to Fairyland
And sit and wait - quite still.
Though nothing's ever happened yet,
But some day p'r'aps it will!
It's nice to feel that no one knows
I'm sitting on the floor
And all alone in Fairyland,
Behind the attic door.

Belinda's got no Fairyland,
And if I said I'd been
She'd laugh at me - I know she would;
Belinda is thirteen.
So when I came from Fairyland
At five o'clock, you see,
I only said to her, "I'm glad
There's greengage jam for tea."

From Marion St John Webb's book The Little One In Between

'The Little One In Between' is a sweet old book of poems published in 1929, all written from the perspective of a little girl who is the middle child.

I really like the lines in this poem: "...Fairyland / Is anywhere, you know; / You've only got to think it's there - / And there it is."

It reminds me of the idea of finding pleasure, beauty and peace in the everyday, and within yourself :-)