if there are ways to measure all the tale
in years of story how the shapes are made

without an edge of humour being frayed

by passing breeze or rough attacking gale

you'd say that we must in this wise assail

the aged creators of the human braid

for all the crimes of their despairing trade

before we mark their effort with a fail

no truths have been ( Read more... )

I still have some work to do on it. To be precise, I have yet to see the galleys, and I haven't yet done the index, though I'm supposed to get the proofs, and instructions on how to go about the indexing, this Friday. But this is now out in the world for all to see. So I thought it was time to share it here.

This is monograph number three, the ( Read more... )

we take the pummel since we have to ride ( Read more... )

emerging from the freighted dark no thought

but that the sky be clear and hands be filled

with all the needful that your warm hearts willed

when in good daylight the first words were caught

by eager listeners who had been taught

that not all prizes went to those best drilled

in the arcana of the freshly-killed

rather to ones who would ( Read more... )

at the commencement all the world was dared

for a small prize a kiss  and then a hope

so that the magic feeling would be shared

not by the ones whose  urgency was feared

as they came running down the morning slope

at the commencement all the world was dared

just so they could with justice be prepared

for honourable parting we elope

so ( Read more... )

what’s left unknown weighs down  until we bleat

in rage and fear then leave off being bold

for better nights and stories wiser told

as those with longer practice wait the fleet

leaving the late ones to patrol the street

in angry silence so while it is cold

as the dew rises and the night turns old

the urgent and the foolish still may meet

( Read more... )

 running into darkness and the grey wall
in the strange quicksand which is some dark trap

you have no choice you must cry out and fall

yet this is not the time for you to bawl

at life's injustice and go off the map

running into darkness and the grey wall

with none to hear as the hard sun stands tall

you have the strength to go another ( Read more... )

 yesterday's snow is dirty now and dark
we look for ice and worry about shade

as the sun rises and the long parade

of normal time resumes along the stark

roads and each newly-woken seems to mark

a world made gritty when light must abrade

both faith and fear the horror we have made

there's nothing but the chance of a new spark

from a great ( Read more... )

 in the deep silence when the heavy snow
had closed the ways and frozen every road

each of us certain that no river flowed

and turning inwards for the gentle glow

of  home and hope that love will soon bestow

on all of those who have found out the code

of normal joy there's no more human mode

for us to find nor for the heart to know

yet as ( Read more... )

we heard a clear message loud as a gun

roll from the speaker who stood above

bright as a sovereign in the setting sun

there’s what we have asked for much has been done

the structure is falling just one more shove

we heard a clear message loud as a gun

and we are not startled though it may stun

having already seen fist in the glove

( Read more... )