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