The darkness has always fascinated humankind. From it, we have conjured countless creatures, as unchancy as the fairies. In this tour, you will meet some of those beings of the darkness and dawn. They dwell in silent places, just beyond the bounds of sight. Just sometimes you might be aware of them, out of the corner of a disbelieving eye.

Here is a piece describing how the beings come out of the darkness of memory and time out of mind.

Out of the Dark

Out of the dark come vampires

Werewolves

Born of the distant fears

Haunting goodfolk for hundreds

Thousands

Of numberless whispered years.

Out of the depths come ghosties

Ghoulies

Fleshed by the ancient seers

Gibbering gravesides for hundreds

Thousands

A'washed in frightful tears.

Out of the deeps come witches

Warlocks

Practicing charms and leers

Nutcracker cackling for hundreds

Thousands

Sprung from charred ideas.

Out of the dark come sirens

Satyrs

Humanity's shock made clear

Shaming goodfolk for hundreds

Thousands

Of numberless whispered years.

Out of the dark come vampires

Werewolves

Born of the distant fears

Haunting goodfolk for hundreds

Thousands

Of numberless whispered years.

The next being is a messenger of light. Angels are often pictured as sweet, wholesome, gladsome spirits nurturing humans and carrying the righteous to their rest. But there's another side to God's elite...

God's Elite

Once I saw an angel, clear

And know that, evermore,

I can never hope to be

The man I was before;

I watched him pass me by that day

And in his eyes I saw;

A silver blade that pierced me

Like a lance.

If I see another angel

Will I lift my face to meet

His piercing gaze, so terrible

The eyes of God's elite?

Or shall I keep the ground in sight

And, peering at my feet,

Wait for him to smite me

With a glance?

And if I dare to look at him

Will terror send me blind?

My brain, lest I should worship him

Must surely close my mind;

Or might I see transparently

And, in my wonder, find;

A courage unexpected

In advance?

Suppose I meet the challenge

In the bright angelic eyes

Will I ever after be

Accounted to be wise?

Or might my boldness turn on me

And make me realize

That I am doomed forever,

And entranced?

Now, I know the race of angels

And I never fail to fear

Encounters of the sudden kind;

If I suspect one near

I'll bow my head and close my eyes

In case I see him clear;

For I dare not risk repeating

That mischance.

Many of the creatures in this anthology belong to Celtic or Classical traditions, but the one you'll meet next is Australian. You might come across him in a deserted waterhole, in a silent billabong ... or maybe in your dreams.

Bunyip

I'm sleeping the dream of the ages:

I was old when Australia was born.

My image on primitive pages in ochre and rockdust is drawn.

You think you can drink of my water?

Believe you are one with my land?

Then come to the rocks of my dreaming, and enter my world where you stand.

I'm dreaming the night of the twilight as I stir in my place in your mind.

I speak in the shadows as my light is shining for me and my kind.

You hope you can sit on my hilltop?

And hold paradise in your palm?

Then come to the edge of my rainbow!

Perhaps I will do you no harm.

Nightmares may come in the suntime, as you stand on the roof of my will.

Believe if you may in the one time--and hope I am drowsing here still.

Take life and pay for your taking

and give of your sweat to the stone--

Man, never wake me from dreaming for now I'm forever alone.