The Scribe In The Woods Of Time Poem by David Lewis Paget

There's an ancient wood where nobody goes
That's hid in the mists of time,
It covers a hundred miles or so
To the west of the Eden line;
The passengers on the rattling train
Will pull at the blinds, and stare,
But no-one's game to get off the train
With the howl of the wolves out there!

And the stories told of walkers, who
Have never come back to tell,
Of monstrous birds that tore at their throats,
Of blood, congealed in a well;
There are cats out there as big as goats
The snakes are draped through the trees,
And vampire bats float down in a cloud
When there's more than a passing breeze.

So none will venture into the wood
Not now, or in times gone by,
The bones that lie in the undergrowth
Are a lesson, for you and I;
But deep within is a clearing there,
A chimney that belches smoke,
A cottage door that is left ajar,
And hung on a hook, a cloak!

The cottage has stood there undisturbed
Since sixteen hundred and nine,
The man who sits at the writing desk
Is writing outside of time,
He whips up storms in the Balkans,
Conjures Thunderheads in the States,
With every swirl of his feather quill
Tornadoes twirl, or abate.

He hasn't the time to trim his beard
It curls right down to the floor,
His eyebrows droop down over his eyes,
His hair is a nest, for sure;
Where eaglets peck, and nip at his scalp,
He brushes the birds away,
And dips his quill in the ink he spills
From the blood of an old dismay!

He marshals armies across the seas,
Prefers to put them to flight,
Their weapons gone as a harsh moon shone,
The soldiers melt in the night;
He topples Princes, he topples Kings
The fate of their wives is worse,
He packs them off to the guillotine,
But he always does it in verse!

Then when the sun sinks under the rim
Of the world in its daily round,
He sits in the cottage, cloaked in gloom
And his face turns into a frown;
Then he lifts his eyes to the stars above
Makes one of his heartfelt pleas:
‘Allow me to scribble ‘THE END', my Lord! '
But a silence rings through the trees!