faraway land love poem

I will meet you in the wilderness.
I will join you as you walk into the dancing river,
your skin pale and rough as a birch’s bark,
your legs as long and straight as its trunk.

I am coming; wait for me.
Let the cool water refresh me also,
though I have not your grace, your way of moving
as smooth as shadow, as quiet as light.

We lie in the sweet-scented meadow,
in the golden green,
until the benevolent sun dries us,
until the heat of the day fades.

And in the long light of summer evening
we learn each other by touch, and taste, and smell,
that even in the darkest night
we will know each other by heart.

stories, legends, and fairytales

Do you remember your favorite childhood story? Was there one book, one character, one storyline that captivated you more than others? I like to think so.
Now, I'm not so much talking about stories you liked as a toddler or preschooler; I'm talking about stories that you just seemed to gravitate to as an eight or ten year old, when you were old enough to have (a tiny bit) of discernment, but young enough that your imagination still ran rampantly wild.
For some of us, it may be a fairytale, one of the familiar classics like Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella or the Prince and the Pauper or Jack and the Beanstalk. For some, it may be a broader story, a cultural legend mashed with history like Paul Bunyan or Davy Crockett or Annie Oakley or King Arthur. Maybe it's a staple of classic literature, like Huck Finn or Oliver Twist or...you get the idea. I hope. I hope you're resonating with this. Either that, or you're thinking I've gone 'round the bend (again).
Whatever your story, it affected you more strongly than any other--it seized your imagination somehow. You dreamed it, played it, asked for dress-up outfits...
And if your attachment was particularly strong, you still find a corner of your adult brain reserved for that story. It is part of the hundred things that shaped you into the person you are today.
What is my story? I bet you're wondering, by now. Fine. I'll tell you. It's Robin Hood. (Is anyone surprised?) I don't even know the first time I heard the tale.
You know what gripped me? Not Lady Marian, not the Norman/Saxon dispute, not even the robbing the rich to feed the poor. No, when I was about ten, it was all about two things: the forest and the archery.
And now...now I find it still holds me. All of it--all the hundred different retellings and variations and anomalies. If it's a movie, I see it. A book, I read it. It is a rich tapestry of legend, still growing and changing after however many hundred years. Action, romance, beautiful scenery, more action, smart alecks...what is possibly missing? (maybe personal hygiene, but whatcha gonna do?)
I'm still wondering what this all means, why it matters to me that I have a story, or why it matters to all of us to have one. I could throw out fancy words like archetype or collective cultural experience, but I'm just not in the mood. I might come back to this later. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
What's your story?