Стихи и эссе

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Now everyone knows the hero must choose the old horse,

Abstain from liquor and sexual intercourse,

And look out for a stranded fish to be kind to:

Now everyone thinks he could find, had he a mind to,

The way through the waste to the chapel in the rock

For a vision of the Triple Rainbow or the Astral Clock

Forgetting his information comes mostly from married men

Who liked fishing and a flutter on the horses now and then

And how reliable can any truth be that is got

By observing oneself and then just inserting a Not?

15. The Lucky

Suppose he'd listened to the erudite committee,
He would have only found where not to look;
Suppose his terrier when he whistled had obeyed,
It would not have unearthed the buried city;
Suppose he had dismissed the careless maid,
The cryptogram would not have fluttered from the book.

"It was not I," he cried as, healthy and astounded,

He stepped across a predecessor's skull;
"A nonsense jingle simply came into my head
And left the intellectual Sphinx dumbfounded;
I won the Queen because my hair was red;
The terrible adventure is a little dull."

Hence Failure's torment: "Was I doomed in any case,

Or would I not have failed had I believed in Grace?"

16. The Hero

Не parried every question that they hurled:
"What did the Emperor tell you?" "Not to push"
"What is the greatest wonder of the world?"
"The bare man Nothing in the Beggar's Bush."

Some muttered, "He is cagey for effect.

A hero owes a duty to his fame.
He looks too like a grocer for respect."
Soon they slipped back into his Christian name.

The only difference that could be seen

From those who'd never risked their lives at all
Was his delight in details and routine.

For he was always glad to mow the grass,

Pour liquids from large bottles into small,
Or look at clouds through bits of colored glass.

17. Adventure