A Long Winter’s Night — 2017 Edition: Day 6

| December 26, 2017

Culturally, the hospitality aspects of festivities prevailing at this time of year exist in a maelstrom of ill considered and contradictory drives. Year after year, many will attempt to answer seasonal motivations to visit people who sometimes live at a great remove and may be reached at no small peril to life and limb, even […]

A Long Winter’s Night — 2017 Edition: Day 5

| December 25, 2017

The best of everything from us to all of you who matter. The rest we’ll fall upon without mercy in a snow storm before Spring, as I’ve promised the Dogs. Anyway, whether you’re on our naughty or nice list, you know who you are. Yet glorious day, the Solstice comes With casting off of dooms! […]

A Long Winter’s Night — 2017 Edition: Day 4

| December 24, 2017

Someone most of us here have enjoyed the benefit of “knowing” since our childhood embarks on another perilous journey tonight, and few have every paused to consider the strategic, tactical, and logistical realities of a Grand Mission that, done half-assed, could end up being Nick’s last ride. He’s been at this a while so it […]

A Long Winter’s Night — 2017 Edition: Day 2

| December 22, 2017

Yesterday I offered you all a poem that chronicles a more primal and realistic approach to the onset of Winter than one usually encounters in this pseudo-enlightened age. The first, To Yip Roll and Frisk!, views the anticipation of Winter’s arrival and revelation from the unbridled perspective of children and Dogs. To Yip and Roll […]

A Long Winter’s Night — 2017 Edition: Day 1

| December 21, 2017

Winter in Nova Scotia will arrive at twenty-eight minutes past noon Atlantic Standard Time today when the Solstice heralds the start of the long, slow plod to Spring. For those of us of whatever species who haven’t already migrated or gone into hibernation, this is a time of uncertainty tempered with incipient joy. The Black […]

Wringing Out the Trolls

| December 1, 2017

Today we welcome the month of December with a poem about Trolls. Why the hell not? Taken from The Unquestionably Fanciful Booke of Worlde Historie which has been relentlessly hammered upon my literary anvil for at least the past nine months, and based on Troll lore I once had verbally related to me, Wringing Out […]

War and Remembrance — The Clenched Fist (Part 1 of 2)

| November 19, 2017

In the waning months of 1941, and  notwithstanding Hilter’s postponement of Operation Sea Lion in September of 1940, Britain was facing a continued threat of German invasion. In Europe and most every other bit of contested ground, as well as on the high seas, Allied forces were losing to the Axis on every front. Desperate […]

War and Remembrance — Let’s Dwell on the Past for a Spell

| November 4, 2017

In lofty halls, forked tongues entwine the words of conflict, At once invoking the name of War whilst insisting the Soldiery Stand upon the field for reasons otherwise. That a Soldier exists as the bloody finality of his Nation’s tolerance is forgotten. ~ Take the Fight to the Enemy ~ In a world at war, […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 27: Of Monsters and Guardians

| October 27, 2017

In face of the objection that fairy tales will frighten children, C. S. Lewis made some observations that I find particularly applicable to Fathercraft as I understand and practice it. The first was, “Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 26: Simple Locomotion

| October 26, 2017

“Tales abound with ingredients that torture the imagination of the susceptible, even long after the story has been read, heard, or watched. The effect is the same whether the tale comes from experience or fiction, for the imagination is a wondrous thing if taken in hand by someone who can play it like a harp.” […]