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    The Valesman
    The Valesman
    The Valesman
    Ebook308 pages1 hour

    The Valesman

    By Richard Lung

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    About this ebook

    Starting from an infants point of view, this story in verse sees the Valesman and his farm, the animals and birds and beauty spots and seaside holidays of former Yorkshire days.
    The book cover drawing, of going with his father to meet grandad, comes from the five-year old at village school. Narrative verse follows the growing boys tricks.
    Something here for all ages.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRichard Lung
    Release dateApr 25, 2016
    ISBN9781310243417
    The Valesman
    Author

    Richard Lung

    My later years acknowledge the decisive benefit of the internet and the web in allowing me the possibility of publication, therefore giving the incentive to learn subjects to write about them.While, from my youth, I acknowledge the intellectual debt that I owed a social science degree, while coming to radically disagree, even as a student, with its out-look and aims.Whereas from middle age, I acknowledge how much I owed to the friendship of Dorothy Cowlin, largely the subject of my e-book, Dates and Dorothy. This is the second in a series of five books of my collected verse. Her letters to me, and my comments came out, in: Echoes of a Friend.....Authors have played a big part in my life.Years ago, two women independently asked me: Richard, don't you ever read anything but serious books?But Dorothy was an author who influenced me personally, as well as from the written page. And that makes all the difference.I was the author of the Democracy Science website since 1999. This combined scientific research with democratic reform. It is now mainly used as an archive. Since 2014, I have written e-books.I have only become a book author myself, on retiring age, starting at stopping time!2014, slightly modified 2022.

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      Book preview

      The Valesman - Richard Lung

      The Valesman

      chapter and verse

      part 1:

      how we lived for thousands of years

      the human zoo

      baddy one shoe

      for a lull in the lullaby

      shadow of the lamb

      warts and all

      Bala, Welsh sheep-dog

      shearing day (no contest)

      the bleat-dog

      the diggers

      watch repairer

      scarecrow walking

      the bronze pony

      changing places

      a bridge too near

      of avoidable sacrifices

      the hunter

      horse sense

      in love and war

      bivouac

      the valesman

      the night raid

      cats cradle

      toddler taken to see kittens

      the aquarium break-out

      washing down

      bringing in the drink

      fish fly

      poetry in motion

      organic farming

      the pig show

      cows-lip

      food taster

      hen-bane

      egged-on

      bobbers

      a draft of poppy cups

      he cried him more than a river

      crowd colors

      a masque of martins

      but soft: we are observed

      part 2:

      flash-backs from the early train

      beds boat

      the play wain

      tiger! tiger!

      the big bang

      Xmas airing

      big ears

      the ravening voles

      he turned over a new leaf

      loco

      flash-backs from the early train

      sleepers

      in two minds

      the wind-falls woman

      wireless

      the writing rocks

      pictograms

      getting by

      tadpoles and newts

      a calm sea and a prosperous voyage

      icing-cake road

      sad ceark

      helpings

      mind your seat when leaving your head

      the dancing bus

      freedom of speling

      saved by the bell

      heron caricature

      heron whereon

      the heron king

      heron dale

      heron high rise

      heron haven

      the heron emperor

      fallow deer

      the lost children

      lonely company

      against time

      first and last invite

      Rorschach test

      part 3: trickster

      the laws of emotion

      the small escape

      wolf boy

      boxer

      clueless

      puerile delinquent

      a hiccup

      let them eat cake

      the rout

      the trail is cold

      part 4: OYH!

      Old Yorkshire Holidays

      on the seat of the street

      the tracts of time

      you can find your own way back

      lost at sea

      council of the braves

      a scream

      the old warrior in peace-time.

      Bessie at the two farces

      The Surreal People

      low profile arrest

      sanderling snooker

      dreaming dreams

      bossy boots

      Brocks hot work

      stone that the elder rejected

      a feather falls

      feather in my cap

      sparrow wild

      all earth a prey

      in doves clothing

      the hand

      the hawk of sleep

      storm rider

      flight of fancy

      dragon-fly ditch

      making eyes

      the sneering bull

      the rival

      the camps

      roll over Bleathoven

      commercial artist

      The Whitby Winnings

      Severn river safari

      harlequin country

      long tails

      horses and hounds

      haring around

      she was a stranger to herself

      the oasis of the arctic

      fire-bird falls

      Keld Head Winter

      Keld Head Summer

      the brontosaurus birds

      bread cob

      the Pickering traction rally

      eagle owl

      upon the west winds wall

      in memory of the fallen

      crouching lion

      the box of tricks

      white-out

      fret

      the leveler

      H2O

      the sea grave

      leaving an impression

      Scarborough post-card

      In the Round

      second biggest open-air theater

      their eyes are stars

      you crazy coot

      this is a cormorant

      bird-port

      fowl play

      tibetan mallards

      life's a scramble

      tact-ics

      reformed character

      on u-121 to Hull

      the fantom coach

      kiddy fun

      notes

      acknowledgments

      after-word

      guide to five volume collected verse

      by Richard Lung

      guide to two more book series by the author:

      Commentaries series;

      Democracy Science series.

      The Valesman

      part 1:

      How we lived for thousands of years

      Note: for hand-held devices, the number of over-hanging lines in a verse may be much reduced, for example, by selecting condensed typeface or by selecting a narrow font, where such options are available.

      Alternatively, the reader can be rotated to landscape format.

      The Human Zoo

      The jumping chairs made wooden kangaroos

      to crowd him from a flock of flames.

      He fed them with a boomeranged shoe,

      Ma-ma snatched-up like the thrown grain

      when the hens swung round to her on sight.

      So, he was thrown in the pen for good reason.

      Hands craned his balloon of a chest into flight

      as the night suspends a shooting star.

      Rose hips change coats to tell the season.

      He telled beads strung across a wood of bars.

      A line-at-a-time viewer holds to reading

      as the bars hold his grip and hold seeing

      Mamas standing shadow cameo the panes

      in a station of the cross as frame

      for heavens blank picture to enlighten.

      Baddy one shoe

      Arm-chairs lift their hind legs and totter

      forward like human hand-walkers.

      Curious as cows coming all round

      the furniture fenced from the bones of the dead

      branches crashing to flakes down the hearth mound.

      Baddy slung his slipper over-head.

      Ma-ma rescued it from the fire stead.

      He's hardly been gone thru the yard

      door. Where is the one shoe, slightly charred?

      The months pass and Ma-ma asks: What stops the rains

      running away? She lifts the grid guard

      on a furry thing rots in its burrow, the drain.

      The beastie, that clad Baddy, wont nip toes again.

      for a lull in the lullaby

      Toil burned palms to a callus tallow on

      armadillo fingers that poised their cradle

      ribs to petition daughter. Repetition

      followed her around, in earnest: "Let me

      send your bairn to sleep. I can do that.

      Let me send your bairn to sleep. I can do that."

      The alerted infant stayed awake.

      Now go to sleep, kid, a mock shrew snapped.

      He looked sharp - the young 'un glanced back.

      This tickled to smokes wheezy he-he-he:

      if he was chimney-breast swept all day out-doors,

      nor gales nor fumes swell the stack bird song.

      Sit still, kid! he over-awed him

      with solemn watch meant: I'll change not

      sooner than rock face score to a polish;

      nor cave-in before cackle of deep streams

      grin cavern teeth mid roof and floor;

      nor hills subside to rumbling laughter.

      Peepsabyo kid-toodle, he encouraged

      with a grunting hum hum hum. The babe faked

      dozing, handed over, as on a platter,

      with an air of proved talent. Not with-

      out his help tho, thought the slumberer

      from view-point of the chair where he'd been.

      shadow of the lamb

      Mary had a giant ram.

      Its fleece was black as coal.

      And every-where that Mary went,

      that ram most surely stole.

      return to contents

      warts and all

      As old Shep grew wary of whistled commands,

      a small girl was run-in to head-off breaks from the pen.

      The moment Dads back turned on one guarding her young,

      that auld yow rolled the wrapped-up tot like a snow-ball of wool.

      Lambing, calving or foaling, he was on hand to help out.

      He loved picking-up lambs to hug and stroke.

      Tho keeping collies from paddling about in the house,

      he role-changed his child from sheep-dog to sheep

      looking after another abandoned birth:

      ewes, in poor fettle, couldnt do with two, let alone three.

      This one looks a goner. See what you can do with that -

      cold and sodden as a babys bath mat.

      She toweled and wrapped in old blanket

      the nursling over-night, as her own, before a big fire.

      A drip of warm milk on her finger-tip

      looked like hushing the lambs lips to sleep

      a desert flowers dream of cupping the dew.

      The faintest heart would awaken, to kiss

      her saving hand, leaving mementos of sheep warts,

      for gems, ring fingers brushed a tiger eye.

      Straw-bedded box flapped out draft from a lolling head.

      In days, finding its feet with a bleat of triumf,

      not too much suck on bottle for such a tail spinner!

      The black sheep of the (adopted) family

      she knew. But grown back in the flock, all five

      stared as one at her coming into the pasture -

      they prune to coats even of flesh for the humans.

      At so much as a bolt click, motherly hoof scuf

      of scullery cobble or a sound out of place,

      rough little butters jammed the opening door.

      She'd rattle the latch then tip-toe out

      the opposite entrance to go village shopping.

      Round the out-buildings, the cute things hurtled

      after her bike half a mile up the lane to main road -

      not cow-boys but sheep here: Round up a posse!

      Back to jail herself in the barn, with the spring-limbs,

      shutting the lower half-door, she clambered over -

      disheveled as just turned out of straw bedding -

      and slammed the top before jump after

      that count of sheep had each lost her a nights sleep.

      Bala, Welsh sheep-dog

      The lank grasses with dun stems exhale

      those earthy vapors of a collies

      musty coat, winds sprayed and stirred to its roots

      red as a foxes sun-set glimmer

      at the lining of his storm-cloud coat

      bred hide red alarm to leaping flocks.

      The welcomed pup could not wait be off

      explore your ground flagging white tail tip.

      At your lafter out loud, he rushed back

      to fore-paw your shoulders, face to face.

      Hint-dropping a saliva-soaked ball,

      grabbed back before you could take it,

      a tug o' war trained hauling teeth. Then

      Bala let you throw catches off-course, taken

      in the leapt twist and snap of a flying

      shaggy alligator with soulful eyes.

      shearing day

      (no contest)

      The farmer goes to market

      when autumn springs its harvest.

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