The Hermit

[Instrumental] [Verse 1] 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. [Verse 2] Two swallowed cups Of pureed bilberries Which grow in abundance By the cornmill ruins: One hungers for nothing [Verse 3] 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 [Verse 4] 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 [Verse 5] 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. [Verse 6] 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 [Verse 7] 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 reveal 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!" [Chorus: Richard Dawson & Chorus] 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 [Instrumental Break] [Chorus: Richard Dawson & Chorus] Tiny cobles out at sea A black wall of cloud in the east And a taper of rainbow Faintly aglow Amidst their wakes