The Hermit

I'm awake but I can't yet see An eager chiffchaff is heralding me The image starts to form of a four-poster bed Sprung in the clarts of a riverbend And the Claviger knows When the beaded shoots go Through the arid interstix of my toes Among the mazed roots of Rowan as I pass my waste Vaporous shafts of a burgeoning sun Skewer the forest-floor onto a world fresh begun All in the Name of the Harvest I.e. our ever-onrushing plasma Shadows of leaves Mottled by thе cleaves Of caterpillar's ardеnt mandibles Form a basketweave of glowing mud Bluebells in bud Linen smock And scarlet-embroidered mantua Descend from alderbranches shined with dew to settle Onto my body A little emerald brooch Unclasps itself from moss To alight upon my breast I step into a slipperpair - Exquisite replicas of those worn by Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers Two swallowed cups Of pureed bilberries Which grow in abundance By the cornmill ruins One hungers for nothing Now let's follow These tracks of a Fallow Deer - Sentences of clay leading away from here Out of the yawning dene And over a gorsey brow vanishes Her black horseshoe rump and tattered tail Into a gossamer vale At the heather-tousled crest of Yeavering Bell we may enter a Stone beacon-tower From which the eye may Hold a whole sweep of the kingdom Hazy marshes, crow-pocked copses Patchwork meadows labyrinthed with hedgerows Gently declining to a fluff of woodsmoke Clung to the fringe of the North Sea The village of Bebba Where once I lived, a Fisher, before I was forced to flee One fair morn, wrapped in a shawl of salt-mist I gathered in my pots of White-Clawed Crayfish And from those sucking sands Did I make my way Dripping to the kitchendoor of the Crossed Keys Young Charley Wheatstone, the innkeeper's lad With the same star-shaped birthmark as his dad Set square on his chin Bid me a shy "hail fellow" And emptied the squeaking traps Into a pewter trough The forlorn brewer, lacking ample coin Apologised with a token of grubs on a stick And suggested payment take the form Of an upgrade to my visual and ontoceptual cortexes Back in the throes of my then-home - A blubberlit chamber, Off the cliff-crazing tunnels beneath the fort - I donned Diogenes' Robes, imbibed the Code And disappeared into a dream of Kittiwakes A hundred billion voices echoing around a Dark amphitheatre Still ringing in my ears As I went, creel in hand Through the Bog of Names Upon entering a blossom grove I went into total spasm as a Storm of info broke abruptly across my retinas I came around to an enhanced perception Of every life-form within a ten-yard radius Each throbbed with its own aurora Utterly awed I'd inadvertently drawn to my mind's-eye A lone Ashy Miner Bee, as if to a plate Under a microscope I sobbed as I zoomed among Individual hairs on its forelegs and face And stared for a long time into the ommatidia Performing a scan On a cache of False Death Caps I found I could trace their history All the way back to manufacture Slippery Jack, Amethyst Deceiver Fairy Rings, Penny Buns, Hen Of The Wood I was amazed Scrolling not only the funguses yesterdays But also their myriad yet-bloomed tomorrows With a burden of redcurrants And wild garlic at my elbow I I wearily made my Way along Crackpool Burn Joining the coast road at Glororum Up ahead I could see what Looked to be a robot knelt in the lane Revealed at a higher magnification As a gilt-clad knight of Old Submerged at the waist in Unyielding concrete Flailing his arms to a windmill of gold Lifting up the poor soul's visor My gaze met with a mask of Vein-popping fury - Or was it abject fear? - Gasping the Chivalric oath Then, it was over - He split asunder Gleaming armour dissolving to unveil The apprentice of Godwin the Whitesmith, a merest sliver of a man Stooped to retrieve the platinum from his mouth I Heard halted hooves in the dust, and the cry "MURDERER!" Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes