Another Poetic Interlude

Language is my first love.

When I discovered the joy of the scientific method I applied it to language.

The study of linguistics can be incredibly boring or a source of great joy.  The choice is there to be made.  It's a matter of approach.   You can, perhaps, switch off your emotions and study with cold logic, or switch off the logic and get so emotional that you end up talking rubbish.

There is a third way.

Let logic map out the landscape, but let emotion decide which bit of it you are going to ramble through today, just for the sheer joy of it.

Poetry - real poetry - is a way of rambling through a forest of words whilst leaving a trace, a thread, a path which others can readily follow.

Here is a path I once trod.


                                       QUEST

     Night it was when I went walking
                              through the darkness of the forest
     through the blackness of the branches
                              through the silence of the midnight

     When the sobbing of a maiden
                              caught my footstep, turned it backwards
     caught my stride and made it faster
                              caught my heartbeat, made it falter

     In a starlit glade I found her
                              bound she was by fiendish witchcraft
     bound by thongs of dragon leather
                              bound and helpless in the starlight

     Then her story she unfolded
                              servant was she to a princess
     servant was she in a castle
                              servant to an evil mistress

    But how jealous was the princess
                              of the beauty of this maiden
    of the singing of her laughter
                              of the men's eyes she attracted

    Learned the princess of the black arts
                              spells she cast to bind the maiden
    spells she cast on who would find her
                              spells on he who would unloose her

    So I cut the thongs that bound her
                              and in cutting was enamoured
    and in cutting she did vanish
                              and in cutting cleaved my heartstrings

    Night it is when I go searching
                              through the darkness of the forest
    through the blackness of the branches
                              through the silence of the midnight

    Seek forever, I will find her
                              love shall lead me once more to her
    love shall bind me to her ever
                              love shall ever conquer darkness.