Coffman Street #5

A Creative Writing Feature of The Cross Plainsman

my Journal for REHupa — first published in REHupa Mailing 178 (30th Anniversary Edition)

The Outgoing of Robert
The Far-Lands Farer

for and "after" REH
transposed and adapted from a poem by Howard

The fires blazed in my teeming brain,
But no reason now to stay —-
And the bitter Night was falling,
Though it was a bright, hot day.
My thoughts roamed far away.

“How can I stay in this Hollow Hall
While my Muses show me clear
The whispering winds drawn by my Soul
And the grey waves writ on my Skald’s Scroll --
Where the gulls wheel and the whales roll,
The Abyss roars loud and near.”

“Man the sweeps and bend the sail —-
We need no oars today,
For my ship is driven before Life’s gale
And that Land I’ve imaged in many a Tale
Is calling, calling! I shall not fail --
Whither after, I cannot say.”

I could not bide in that Narrow Hall
Where the Great Fires teased the Glooms —-
For the winds were walking -- and called to me!
And I had to follow; I had to see,
Seeking, beyond that Nameless Sea,
The Dooms beyond the Dooms.