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