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Tag Archives: words

Variations on the Horse-leech

Google Ngram comparison of “horseleech” and “horseleach”: here. And horse-leech, n., defined by the Oxford English Dictionary: Pronunciation: /ˈhɔːsliːtʃ/ Etymology: < horse n. + leech n.1 < Old English lǽce, léce, physician. 1. A horse-doctor, farrier, veterinary surgeon. 1493 in J. T. Fowler Memorials Church SS. Peter & Wilfrid, Ripon (1888) III. 165 Item Johanni […]

Beasts and Their Volumes

To be real on this path you must be humble— If you look down at others you’ll get pushed down the stairs. If your heart goes around on high, you fly far from this path. There’s no use hiding it— What’s inside always leaks outside. Even the one with the long white beard, the one […]

Ripened in Silence

A single word can brighten the face of one who knows the value of words. Ripened in silence, a single word acquires a great energy for work. War is cut short by a word, and a word heals the wounds, and there’s a word that changes poison into butter and honey. Let a word mature […]

Used First to Praise the Sea or Sword

At fifty generations’ end (And such abysses time affords us all) I return to the further shore of a great river That the vikings’ dragons did not reach, To the harsh and arduous words That, with a mouth now turned to dust, I used in my Northumbrian, Mercian days Before I became a Haslam or […]