1. ON WHOM THE RED MOON BLEEDS

Rotten rattan surrounding the pyre,
The grotto of nature, Soured by amber,
See the high stream glitter.
Bewitching disenchantment.
Where a kindred chalice brims lucid malice

...A dead world dreams...

How captivated is the mid when blinded by guile,
Swooned by the oath of grandeur,
Strolling over leveled acres,
Resting by desolate streams,
The profane inhabitant,
--On whom the red moon bleeds --
Anxiety, claustrophobia, churning agitation,
And so the ode continues...


2. STONE HOOVES

The wall walks the fell,
Grey millipede on slow stone hooves,
Its slack back hollowed,
At gulleys and grooves,
Or shouldering over old boulders,
Too big to be rolled away,
Fallen fragments of the high crags,
Crawl in the walk of the wall.

A wall walks slowly,
At each give of the ground,
Each creak of the rock's ribs,
It puts its foot gingerly,
Arches its hog-holes,
Lets cobble and knee-joint,
Settle and grip, erodes and drifts,
The wall shifts with it,
Is always on the move,
They built a wall slowly, a day a week,
Built it to stand but not stand still


3. SCOWL

Bleeding heats where is the nerve?
No one is satisfied with all your gruel

"We'll burn your lies, open your eyes, son..
A funeral pyre, receding all your tripe, son!"

The reeking hazy heat, devouring all your shrieks,
On, that reeking hazy heat of searing northern steel,
Ha! Aghast in need to preach
Hail the ghoulish iron fist

Salute the scowl!
Salute the grimace!
Cacophonous raucous,
Abandoned soul disease

Up from the sewers and cesspits,
To brawl wit the plague on the west,
Tomorrow you'll see
Are your eyes upon the golden acres,
Is just lost on your creed?


4. GINNEL WITCH

Evil seeps through these red brick streets,
A briny reek surrounds this township
Reoccurring, reoccurring,
The persistent nightmare
Oh how cold this eve...

The black mark on the ceiling,
There's something in this room
...Leering...
With its burlap skin,
The remedy beings
Septicemia, Pyaemia, A drowning chill

Ahhh, Ginnel Witch!
The ominous haunt
Ahhh, Ginnel Witch!
The dreadful hag
Remind me again

A stones thrown from
The old allotments,
The secluded burrow,
Sodden with spear wort
Where harmony was neglected that night

Took through the tomb
The great hall
Apprehension


5. BLACK COMBE

This high a ministering angel might select.
For from the summit of black combe
-Dread name derived from clouds and storms!-
The amplest range of unobstructed
Prospect may be seen

And in a line of eyesight
Linked with these,
The hoary peaks of Scotland
That give birth
To Teviot's stream
To Annan, Tweed, and Clyde
That English ground commands
Low dusky tacts
Where Trent is nursed - Far southward!
Crowding the quarter whence the sun comes forth,
Gigantic mountains rough with crags,
At the spectator's feet.
'Yon azure ridge.
A perishable cloud!
Not doubtfully perceived,
In depth, in height, in circuit, how serene...
Look homeward now!


6. SERPENTINE SMIRK

A sinew of sun
Casts a solar disease,
Chronic recluse
The gutter is where you'll find him,
Covered in sores, abandoned swollen grisly lord
Scorch his seed, intrinsic greed
Chucked on the floor, once again his
Highness on all fours

Release life form the beast,
Tack him up down the terrace,
Misery entwines his crown
That serpentine smirk - Quick to depart
when the flogging starts!
The carrion crows dine kosher under the stars

Swallowed by the slums,
The broken master finds his place
Amongst his flock


7. UPON THE EXALTED HILLS

Stay bold adventurer,
Rest awhile thy limbs
On this commodious seat!
For much remains of hard ascent
Before thou reach the top
Of this huge eminence

From blackness named and to far
Traveled storms of sea and land

A favourite spot of tournament and war!

But thee may no such
Boisterous visitants molest,
May gentle breezes fan thy brow
And neither cloud conceal
Nor misty air bedimb the grand
Terraqueous spectacle,
From the centre to circumference

Unveiled!