palpatine teenage dark lord a rebel with out a cause

read  darth plagueis  by james lucerno    a factory line  star wars novel   set over 40 years before new hope  a back story of darth succession  from sith master to sith master   and a young palpatine who outdoes anakin as  as   a  irritating teen rebel    as stiff as a historical novel  the book by lucerno a profesional star wars  genre novelist   only  comes alive with movie familiar characters such as Dooko  , Jedi cliches and  catina lowlifes  and  as a back story only fills a hole in the  narrative  rather than tells  a good tale

dakota cipher  by william dietrich   another  ethan gage adventure this at the last crusade plot level    set in the wild west of  pre lewis and clark   it has enough villains  , beautiful ladies and heroes  to fill a hundred action scenes and thunders along to the climax beneath a huge lightning tree and a  long lost  norse god  treasure   a enjoyable way to pass the time read and enjoy

legions  of Rome the definite history of every  Imperial Roman legion  by Stephen Dando-collins  
a great  addition to the usual  tomes about Roman military  warfare    this 600  page book tells the campaign history of every  Roman legion from the fall of the Republic to the sack of Rome    
part 1  details Roman legionary life from kit to  enlistment   procedures  
Part 2 includes a  history of every Roman legion  and offers new theories on the disappearance of the 9th Legion and the origins of the 10th legion
part 3 is a chronological  summary of every Legion campaign from the wilds of caledonia  to the  cities of Persia from the year of the three emperors to severan  campaigns
idea for history buffs , diorama  modellers  and  anyone  who has watched  a Roman epic  movie

the age of chivalry  by  hywel williams the story of medieval europe  lavishly illustrated   an introduction to medieval life   idea for someone like me who spent their child hood  memorizing medieval king lists and who   could name  the  battles of the black prince  by age ten   good sections on florentine city life,  the kingdom of anjou -Naples and  the  100 years war    sadly no mention of any  northern kingdom such as sweden    or much on germany beyond the salian  and hohenstaufen dynasties  but a great  book to read overall

A sleeping engine my time travel by dream

This is one of my latest poems   oddly like  xanadu revealed in a  dream
 I was  actually  in the medieval period between ruins  and  medieval reality  witnessing  some sort of    forgotten crime of passion     as it happened  

 England has lot of ghost couples unhappy in love haunting and haunting
 but most you realise are  from stories of fiction    or tourist  traps  - no real way to trace the origins of this  

I live out  the past

A sleeping engine  in a shocked  blank room

Older than saxons

Older than jutes

Older than older !

The land gives back

Dreary English ghosts

Demonic and  inertly orthodox

Wake a  dread height

Travelling aquatint gives us light

Spilling utter twisted dust

 Lace, frost and the same ringing weather from here to there

May day festival  and hobby hob foul 

chalk horse  chases down grass  giant

this is a complex relationship  of  love and  place

two  of the other strangers dance

he rejected !

she repelled !

many lives are here

safety in numbers 

car drawn farm cart coarse with  hanged man 

maid in her grave

a romance of  the medieval from beginning to end

tear it up   bring candle to water