Arthurian Merlin

 

 

 

 

 

three  of my 2013  poems written   on theme of life of   king Arthur

I is  a  retelling of the  lust of  Uther for Igraine

II  is  the  story of Merlin beguiled by   Nimue

III is the  death  of Arthur

 

I

 

Merlin fetches  a sea ran spell to turn  King Uther

 

leaving  out  one word of nine

the  lusty king  is mistaken

For

rather  than

by

the lady

 

timbre haired  ice cream girl 

the lady Igraine  Ygerna

 

Both women now live in the castle to the confusion of her lousy man of a husband

 

 

Merlin comes  to the rescue with cloak  and vapour

cracks a cage to catch hawk feathers

stumbles   headfirst into a  midden

counts himself under a mire

 

What a fine lady  pale and trembling

rope  arches to a casement

is that the shriek  of a gull?

 

 

II

Trees hide temple and given altar

Bride my foolish brother  my foolish sister

Merlin and his queen lady

   she says thy spells

Seeks your secrets

 

Hide the light   and the steps  to his old Earth

 

Hand on lake

Let me touch the ice

Darkling grail

 

III

Wolves and isolation crying to the pity

The day of his death

 

Move out of sounds  way 

Thin walls to the fortress and the moat

 

A mid coloured banner   bends in the rain

Dross frost  of pin flowers

Ancient bleak of wheat

 

No body say  doomsday

 

Dead in the stink of weird Avalon 

The champion is dead

Dead

 

The tide throws out the grave

 Award his armour

Scale turned to rack insects

 

 

 

Is  that  the shriek   of a Gull   Mark Littler  2013

Darkening  Grail  Mark littler 2013

Wolves  and isolation   Mark  Littler  2013

complete set of alien night sky charts a wonderful Christmas gift

 

 

 

 

 

 Writing this  lying on the floor   rolling  about in pain   and this  post created  for those interested   in Astrofly software    

By   using the fly there function for  stars over   170 light years  distance  zooming in on a  fly there  looking back at the  sun   but   messing with the  field of view  to show the rest of  the  night sky at that location  and by taking  imageshots moving  down    and across the  fly there  sky   and photoshopping together     I obtained  complete  planetisphere type  sky  charts  for alien skies     if   slightly hemisphere 290

 

 

 Typically  with   such  star point  constellation   charts even alien skies    you can make an awful lot of  variations   on stick figures  

note  the  what are new to us   bright " nearby" stars such as Nashira , Angetenar   and   Algiedi Secunda   that is if   glogger  photo  is  actually working on your browser   you ahoud  seee  them

 

 

Maria Lindsey Cobham tawny termagant of the high seas

 

 

Still  having problems  both with  my  paint it  black   blogger  photo up loader   and  a    non functional    yahoo email for  most of the week     this combined with me  being   ill    and    plagued  by  abdominal pains   and   even worse  pains  even further down below  will make  a   usual christmas

 

Reminded  me that I had  drafted  lots of  unused posts   and rather than   take  a  selfie  of  my  medication   and pained expression     decided to   write of the brandy butter and moonfleet pirates   of the  early 1700s 

 

Namely   Maria  Cobham   the  crew murdering      pirate  queen of the   Canadian  main  who found her way into children's  books of pirates    from the  1920s onwards   where as you can see from the above   Ladybird  book illustration    Maria   really pointed both  barrels

 

  Maria was  the lover of the  rough ruffian   Eric Cobham  a man  stole a  bag of  gold  from a  sleeping  clergyman to   buy a  ship  and in a  cruel  crude career  operating out of Saint  Georges   bay

  Cobham  successfully  looted   both  East Indiamen and  Hudson Bay traders the captains tied to masts   and used for target  practice     the crews of these seized  ships  ending up either  poisoned roasted   or  sew into sacks  and thrown overboard   by  his Plymouth born  lover   Maria  Lindsey

 

Making  enough money in  loot  of furs  and  New York   bound spices   the  Cobhams retired to  France where   Eric  Cobham became   an  ancien regime  landowner and Judge    in the  Gironde  region    only  occasionally   sailing out to ransack    becalmed   ships  and  murder  their  crews   

It is said  Eric   died  a rich and respected  aristocrat  but    Maria  Lindsey   poisoned herself  in despair  over getting old   and  being rejected   in  favout  of   Cobhams  new  French wife  

 

 

The  Cobhams   however  now no longer find themselves  alongside Kidd and  Teach   since  the story was a  tourist  tale  based on a  discovered "lost  memoir"   originating in the  1920s    the  Cobhams  invented  as   bodice ripper  villains   to    interesting than the  other   fictional pirates   such as   Captain  Mission, Captain  Red Legs  Greaves and  Captain Derdrake. 

 

Do you see what I see , A star, A star and a reindeer in the sky

 

been made aware  by  readers   that on some browsers   the  previous  Zeta  Doradus  photo appeared as a simple black   rectangle  with no detail  as  software  sees  the starfield  image  as  98%  black  hexadecimal 

this is an ongoing problem with   blogger this week     unhappy  with this as  next post   was a photo post  a  completes set of   proper motion  alien star charts for  plantispheres  i was  sharing online

For those who love  the   Christmas lights   at  this  time of year  -  houses  with   the  giant  electric  singing  Santas  and  the  Perry Como  sounds of  shopping cities  with  the  strings  of  festive  lights  may be interested in this   un -intententially festive night  sky as seen from zeta  ( ζ )Doradus  a star  38 light years away 

 Where quite by chance  and proper motion   bright stars such as  Capella,. Kocab  Sirius  and Vega   form  up to  create  the  constellation shape of a  perfect   mall  decoration    standing  reindeer    with  Deneb Sadr and  Formalhaut   making  up a  Santa  figure  to the  left when you run the  coordinates  in  the Astrofly  program

There is also  a  slightly  more abstract  reindeer  to be found  at  Nu Andromdae  66 light years  from  Doradus  and made up of  some of the  same  stars  

Rather later  with this   blog post   this month  has had written one on  lost  comet ISON and naked  eye  great comets  such as  the 1811  and 1843  comets  with illustrations   of  the  mega coronas  from my  contemporary  astronomy  books   and one on Eliza Cobham the  cruel lady pirate   but  truthfully i am   troubled with recurrence of  a  illness  that last   put me in hospital   twice in the  1990s and may so again   and that  I  am  teaching  ICT  again one day a week   in the  voluntary   sector  but have to commute  to a  neighbouring city .