Religious sensitivity warning: this is my – slightly pagan, slightly narrative – twist on Satan’s expulsion from heaven, as someone who has grown up in a Christian culture and become enamoured with the medieval idea of fairies and nature spirits as angels that fell with Lucifer. You may rather not read if the original is of religious significance to you. I apologise if this causes any offence, it is not the intention.

In wreaths of flame I watched you fall
Feathers charred around your frame
An apple core in outstretched hand
A plummeting beneath the land

And then, below, the briars grew
Thorny webs from shadows flew
And in their shelter, creeping things
Learned and lived and worshipped you

With berries sweet you fed the small
The unloved and unheliacal
The vicious, ugly and unheard
You raised the unloved of the world.

And in wisdom undiscerning
You sowed saplings after burning
Forest fires. You grew free
In what was meant captivity.

Now the world a tapestry
Of guided fate and liberty.
Of all the richness that I see
How many souls give thanks for thee.