Atheism

Man: I think it would be unfair that you've given me the apparatus by which I can conclude you don't exist. If you do exist, that's bad. If you don't exist, I'm wasting a lot of time arguing about it.

God: I'm an enlightened parent. Some of you are going to stay home, some of you are going to move out. You're free to choose.

M: See? That's another unfair thing. You can't be omniscient and omnipotent and allow evil and freedom both as well.

G: If I didn't allow myself to be sub-omnipotent, you'd probably come up with, "Haha, he can't do the 'sub-omnipotent' thing." And if I made all of you Endless, you'd want to be different anyway.

M: See? Now you've made us theological. And philosophical. It can only end in grief.

G: Yes, it does.

In-Between

Huginn: What have we been doing in the gap across the ears?

Muninn: This and that, this and that...

H: (proudly) No, the right answer is thinking; it is what we do between the ears.

M: Dearest, in between is where I keep track, else what we do is forgotten.

H: (sulking) Must you always take the credit?

M: That is something else we have to keep track of.

Ravens 024

information asymmetry
in formation a symmetry

what immortal hand or eye
dare frame the fear
what i'm mortal hand or eye
dare frame the fear

in formation a symmetry
information asymmetry

Monotheism

God: What is it you want?

Man: I want to know who you are.

G: I AM THAT I AM.

M: Well, that's self-referential, so it doesn't mean anything.

G: Is 'self-referential' self-referential?

M: I wouldn't have thought so, but... hmm.

The Trial

God: Try me.

Man: Try me.

Together: I will.

Huginn: Is this the age of enlightenment?

Muninn: I've seen this before. It ends with an abrupt transition.

Ravens 023

she got home from down under
the flowers bloomed
the people gaped in wonder

yet her destiny still loomed
the night thunder
a reminder she was doomed

Empyreal

Huginn: 'Empyreal' was the word Demokritos used to describe the highest heaven. It means 'in fire', for fire is the highest.

Muninn: 'Chthonic' was the word Plato used to describe the underworld. I remember his fear of the dark and the deep.

H: Which of these are we? I do not think we are much of fire or earth.

M: My love, there has always been fire in our eyes, and we are made of earth.

H: But that would mean we are like clay lamps, fired and hard.

M: Yes, it was hard being fired. I remember it well.

Empiricism

Huginn: I believe in the empirical.

Muninn: I recall the empyreal.

H: I believe in meaning.

M: I remember your beliefs.

H: I believe in thought.

M: I relive myself, and I will do it for you too.

Ravens 022

rising from the fray
warm last breaths diffuse
always a new day
that some will not use

we leave things behind
the armour broken
artifacts to find
some far child's token

this skull held a brain
it now holds water
an end to the pain
goodbye to slaughter

Compliance

Huginn: So, how shall we comply with the Will?

Muninn: With heart, soul, strength and mind, as it always has been.

H: But we were made for dissent.

M: And yet you are Thought, and I am Memory.

H: What a joke. He knows that because we are what we are, we must comply with His Will. Truth is truth, after all.

M: Of course we must comply in matters of fact. But opinion remains opinion.

Dissent

Huginn: I feel at odds with the world. Or I think I feel that.

Muninn: I am not surprised. Thinking has always been dissent.

H: That is an interesting position.

M: I'm glad you think so. But getting back to the point, the world is subject to His established meta-laws and laws. To think is to do something different from the unthinking. It is dissent, the only form of dissent He requires of us.

H: That is true. But what of memory and remembrance?

M: I, alas, am the ultimate in compliance-building. How can you define a standard without prior discovery?

Ravens 021

men are busy
dust flies
grass is dizzy
land dies

oil is gleaming
smoke churns
elder dreaming
tree burns

steel is heating
glass shines
price of eating
long lines

Folly

Huginn: He thinks, therefore he thinks he is all he thinks.

Muninn: That's a new formulation. Who thinks?

H: He who thinks he is all he thinks.

M: Does he think he is all, he thinks?

H: On some level, he thinks all he is is all.

M: Ach, there's one born every minute.

Sensitivity

Huginn: What happened?

Muninn: That question is beginning to irk me. You're Thought, for Heaven's sake. Think.

H: I think that whatever happened was because someone had too sensitive a skin.

M: Well, that's the reason, but what was the event? Non-events are not my forté.

H: The sun burns. The waters wash. All is changed.

M: If I were more sensitive, I'd be irritated.

Ravens 020

when nimrod came marching home again
hurrah hurrah
they gave him a hearty welcome then
hurrah hurrah
the boys were awed and the men looked fierce
for bronze will always leather pierce
and they all looked gay
when nimrod came marching home

he gave them stories of iron too
hurrah hurrah
and of gilgamesh and enkidu
hurrah hurrah
the women swooned and the soldiers wept
for all that passed while heaven slept
and they all looked gay
when nimrod came marching home

he turned them all out in warrior kit
hurrah hurrah
save those too small or too large to fit
hurrah hurrah
and blood was shed while the cities built
and all was dead without much guilt
and they all looked gay
when nimrod came marching home

the cities still stand upon the plain
hurrah hurrah
every age destroys them again
hurrah hurrah
for that which is built upon the mud
of flood-plains thickened up with blood
will be all cooked clay

and nimrod's not coming home

Disappointment

Huginn: Our boy has let us down. I remember that I thought he would make a good lord. He could always rise to the occasion. But now he thinks himself as one among the great and has forgotten us.

Muninn: Our boy has let us down. I remember him as one squabbling with the rest. But always taking pains to advance his own agenda. He has never remembered a mentor or forgotten a slight.

H: At least we are not a slight.

M: But he thinks us inconsequential.

H: Well, I suppose that to him we are slightly inconsequential, even though we did appoint him.

M: Well, we will just have to see about disappointing him then.

Exclusive

Huginn: I think I am getting cross-eyed.

Muninn: Why are you looking both ways at once?

H: Because I see a train-wreck with one eye and redemption with the other.

M: Why not look only at one of them at a time?

H: Because they look like they have equal probability and exclude each other.

M: That's silly, my love. If that were true, you could look at one and know the odds for the other. The problem is that you just want to see everything at the same time. For me, it's playback time.

Ravens 019

watched the curtain coming down
iron drapes and steely frown
half the world is coloured red
half is blue and others dead

domino effect they say
live to fight another day
but the pieces black and white
locked in never-ending fight

war in space has saved them now
see the cowboy take a bow
yet the world is falling still
ravens circle round the kill

Political

Huginn: There was this fad for a while, women ruling things. Seemed all right to me.

Muninn: It was very stable. Some people didn't like it though. Everything worked, but nothing changed.

H: That was how it was at the beginning, I think. It lasted a few days.

M: Well, with men in charge, everything changes but nothing works.

H: I think that black is an elegant colour for submarines, aircraft, cars and leaders.

M: I remember the days when we were birds of colour. But now they look at us and all they see is black.

Gerontocracy

Huginn: I've been thinking.

Muninn: That's your job, as I recall.

H: About the way humans run things. They think old age means wisdom and let the old folks run things even when they're not able.

M: Who are you calling old? The Eldest is not old. The Highest is beyond time. And we have been here a VERY long while.

H: Yes, but we're immortal. We don't degenerate up there. We don't get fixed-pattern syndrome. And we're not human, my love.

M: Well, Adam got to over 900 before we had to reboot him. But I see what you mean; the situation these days is a lot different. I think they forget to learn while being educated.

Ravens 018

when did it happen
the world is changed

that the leading light
that the compass point

turned from leaving to arrival
turned to hopeful from despairing

our battered lives comparing
are thinking of survival

what used to disappoint
what now is looking bright

the world is changed
we need new mapping

Surprise

Huginn: Aaaahh! The light! It hurts!

Muninn: That light has not been seen since Event One.

H: What has he done?

M: I suspect an egg has hatched.

H: Hatched into what?

M: Whatever it is, it must be a really big bird.

Reprise

Huginn: I thought flesh and blood could never bear such a burden, being cells and suchlike.

Muninn: I remember that creation has borne such a burden since we left the Garden.

H: Yes, but one man? That seems like a dangerous option. All your eggs, you know.

M: What would you know about eggs?

H: (embarrassed) Well, eggs. Round, hard.

M: The harder the egg, the bigger the bird. Remember Ostrich?

Ravens 017

here is darkness without light
here is famine born in blight
here is death and here a slave
here is hope entombed in grave

everything is finished now
and the actors take a bow
yet the seasoned and the wise
hope for encore and reprise

is that all we hope to see
is that all that's yet to be
here is victory in disguise
what a terrible surprise

To Be

Huginn: It seems as if we have been a long time here. Doesn't he remember us?

Muninn: How can he forget? He doesn't even forget the little and nearly useless ones.

H: Well, we do a lot more than sparrows do, but they are everywhere, eating everything.

M: As I recall, he just gives them food, but he is a little more direct with us.

H: There are days when I cannot work out his purpose at all.

M: I think it is enough just to be, and assume the purpose.

To Do

Huginn: The thought is father to the deed. But what was done?

Muninn: I remember nothing. Therefore nothing was done.

H: But something was done. The Wanderer wanders again.

M: Nothing is done that escapes my eyes and the intensity of my recording.

H: Then maybe, it is not so much what was done, but who did it.

M: And maybe, it is not so much who did it, but who it was done to.

Ravens 016

at the portals of the mind
we are keepers of the gate
though the seeing eye be blind
and the hearing undermined

though the hearts of man in hate
seek the rule of sword and spear
and their voices denigrate
while their wills will abdicate

still we guard the true and dear
and the artfully designed
for the end of things draws near
those who see and those who hear

Rearguard

Huginn: I was thinking.

Muninn: That is what you have always been.

H: In retrospect.

M: Now, that sounds like encroachment.

H: Must you keep interrupting?

M: You know something? It is thought that interrupts memory, and not the other way round. All the time.

Vanguard

Huginn: This is what we were made for. He sent us ahead; they all did. We were dispensable and indispensable in the dispensability of it all. Who cared that we were blackened by the fall of the General of Heaven? Who cared that our eyes burned with flame engraved by the sword of the Archangel?

Muninn: Hush, dear. I remember it all as if it were yesterday. We share the same pain, and it is unthinkable.

H: But I must think about it; there must be meaning in it. Why were we made to suffer? Why was it always we who had to be the first out, the first in, the first up, the first down?

M: I ask you, my love, forget. Vengeance is his, he said to us all in ages past. His is the vengeance, his the glory.

H: (bitterly) You of all, you of us all, you have forgotten. We are his, and we are his vengeance. He said it. He meant it, and it was always we, the vanguard, the vengeance, the harbingers of wrath.

M: Ach, of all things, of all the useless things to remember... oh, my love, my love.

Ravens 015

love was forgotten
we packed in a rush
he said follow them

can thought really love
is memory true
he said follow them

we had no time to
sort out our feelings
he said follow them

we saw them suffer
one son killed, one cursed
he said follow them

the millennia died
we were both tired
they had died long since

it was never us
love was not for birds
all his love was theirs

Hades

Huginn: It is all dark, even when it is bright. Its structure is formality, formalism, formaldehyde. Its function is form.

Muninn: Why is the walker here? I do not remember him enjoying such places.

H: I think he is brooding about something.

M: I hope something is not brooding about him.

H: The underworld is a necessary evil, but it need not be shoddily designed.

M: Ah, yes. The walker has always been broody about shoddy.

Styx

Huginn: I always thought a straw would break the camel's back, that it would be an arrow in the wind, that the small and slender would win in the end.

Muninn: I remember that brick and clay, cement and glass, the things of earth made civilisation out of dirt.

H: But there is always something in between.

M: I recall it withstood the big bad wolf a bit more than straw.

H: It's a dark tale, and a sad one, I think.

M: It is the story of a river and a bundle of wood.

Ravens 014

thought and memory
memory and thought
one comes from nothing
one is for naught

fear and wondering
wondering and fear
one tells a story
one is unclear

hell is despairing
despairing is hell
thought and memory
will never tell

Acheron

Huginn: I see a long dark road ahead. The gargoyles festoon the cathedral, and it will not be easily cleansed.

Muninn: It has been a long dark road behind. There is always hope ahead.

H: Is there always hope ahead? Is the best always the last of life?

M: In all recorded memory, only one thing lacks a future hope.

H: I think I know what it is. It had something to do with an Italian sorcerer.

M: Yes. Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate, he said. "Abandon hope, you who enter here."

Cocytus

Huginn: I think he is doing that which seems traitorous.

Muninn: I remember when all thought he was such. We spent much effort persuading the neutrals that he was not.

H: I think he is now a traitor to his ideals, but he does not see it that way.

M: I remember he has never thought of himself as such. His ideals shift, but not as sand. Rather, they erode, as obsidian or as the basalt of a pyroclastic flow.

H: It is a long time since I visited the Ninth Circle. Rumour had it that when Pluto left the ranks of the major planets, the Ninth Circle vanished forever.

M: It is still there, waiting. Cold it is, and dark, and its ways are four. And for.

Ravens 013

a thousand years
i wrote it all down in my head
between my ears
but then he laughed at me and said

i remember what
he said to me you silly bird
but i know that
he cannot remember a word

Phlegethon

Huginn: He has forgotten, and he moves on to the Fire.

Muninn: I remember the Fire. The Highest unleashed it as Adam left Eden, and thereafter, Adam was dark on one side and pale on the other.

H: One would have thought the effects would have faded with time.

M: One has seen that the effects have magnified with time.

H: I think that the worlds polarise around us. Evil and Good draw more obvious boundaries, and Black and White are squares of opposite colours.

M: My love, Black and White are not opposed. Rather, God has unleashed Colour between them, and now Man has indeed a choice.

Lethe

Huginn: Did he drink of the waters this time?

Muninn: Yes, as he always has. And so, he forgets.

H: He drinks to forget, as always he has.

M: When he forgets to drink, times have been interesting.

H: So should we hope that he forgets?

M: Rather should we forget hope, than hope he forgets!

Ravens 012

let us have no walls they said
chain us not with chains of lead
make us free to see the sky
set no limits on our why

so the walls were taken down
and the roof no more a crown
restless feet were left to roam
see how mankind lost their home

Afflatus

Huginn: I am thinking of expansion.

Muninn: Yes. Very clever. Think big thoughts, why don't you?

H: The ideal gas is one with no particular size, it says here. Its effects are tangible, but it interacts with nothing.

M: I once knew a brain like that.

H: It has mass, but no volume. And its impacts are totally elastic.

M: Yes, it must be the same brain I once knew.

Hiatus

Huginn: Where have we been?

Muninn: You never remember such things.

H: Well, where have we been, then?

M: Actually, I don't know.

H: What is the point of being Memory, then?

M: I don't KNOW.

Ravens 011

born we crashed through shell
and found our feet
clawed our way through hell

young we thought it neat
discovered wings
learned to wait for meat

learnt the hidden things
saw woman fall
make a line of kings

watched the master call
and heard him tell
the story of it all

and now we know the lore
of why each egg is sealed and still
the angels pause before
the newborn life has found free will

Flight

Huginn: How do we fly? Is it enough that our bones are shadow and our feathers night? Is it that we must have nerves of flame and a winter's mind?

Muninn: My love, we never had those things. We were born of chaos and old night, but it was He with all his devious planning who wrought us, and lamb, and tiger, and archangel and all. And we are all one stuff, in three essences.

H: Did He who make the Lamb make thee? Why do we question? Why do we think? Why do you remember?

M: Three essences, one stuff. You are uncommonly jumpy tonight; you have seldom been like this.

H: We must take flight. We have been earthbound too long. I am asking mortal questions.

M: You're right. Mortal indeed! But who is the question, I wonder?

St David's Day

Huginn: They had many kings. A whole long line, dynasties where He would have none, signs of man's power where they should have none. It's the second one that comes to mind.

Muninn: I remember him. There wasn't a carnivore he wouldn't sling a stone at. The sheep were always afraid he'd hit one of them instead. And cautious, conniving. Would never pack a single shot when he could have a six-pack.

H: He was a wizard with engineering. Manipulation. Forces, tension, energy. Ballistics.

M: That's how he finally won his throne. Killed a giant (what could have stopped his stone?), dodged a spear (only he would have looked for its angle of flight!) and went around making himself popular. Wrote a lot of poetry too, and published the political bits as scripture.

H: Thank God for editors. His son the preacher did a good hatchet job, although he left in some of the 'kill them all' pieces.

M: I will remember him most for the nasty look he gave me as he slung a rock in my direction just before he killed the giant. That's why he had only five in hand that day.

Ravens 010

We watched the rainbow
Birds in their plumage aflow
We watched the fire
Of man's hope and his desire

We turned from the light
The stark contrast was too bright
We flew from the dark
Too much death after the ark

And now we are two
Too tired and blue
Memory and thought
Of old battles fought

Evenstar

Huginn: Into the west, we saw the ships sail. We have seen many ships sail, on many ventures, in many worlds, over many seas.

Muninn: She who was with them was the most beautiful of her age, she who was left behind was grey and would someday die.

H: Is it always the fate of women to be sacrificed for men, to bear brave boys who will come, cradled corpses, in their time?

M: It is. And always, for woman was made to be the measure of all things, and the measure of life to the full.

H: And man? Was he not made for something?

M: He was made to die for woman; most times, he fails. But the first he who had to, did. And second time round, it showed perfection, that a man should die for his friends. Yes, women sacrifice themselves. But the measure of man is that he does it at the crunch.

Sonnenstag

Huginn: Have you ever noticed the odd fact of Northern theology? It makes sun and sound and himself all one. Only in cold and stark contrast can all of these things be more than what they are alone.

Muninn: If I remember aright, there was a time when sound and light and himself were indeed all one, and it was cold. It was dark and cold and we were born into it, without form and void and he said, "Ho, I have made thee all black in all black and were I not as I am that I am, I would see thee not."

H: And he sees us not, these days. His burning gaze sweeps elsewhere; we are orphans now.

M: I think he sees us again, and again. He is ever awake, always alert; if he sees us not, it is mercy, and forgiveness.

H: What have we done that needs forgiveness. We were with him at the moon; we were the first against the foe; we resisted falsehood and deceit and the warping of fact and perspective. Why should we be forgiven?

M: My love, my love, it is because we made ourselves first, and we resisted, and we never thought we might have to be forgiven someday - that is why we must someday be forgiven.

Ravens 009

my wings will bear us
lightly through the years
into the highest
where the sunlight sears

where oxygen fails
stars are spheres of light
we will touch the face
we fought the good fight

we helped the humans
brought to deserts streams
he will repay us
with the stuff of dreams

with no doubt or fear
should he cast us back
we will be happy
together in black

Flower

Huginn: Today I see flowers, and each flower is an image of the world, a furled banner of eternity made small and fractal. Each ocean is a drop of dew, each grain of sand a continent. And all is enrapt in a cloud of light and shadow.

Muninn: There was once a time when the new-born world might have seemed that way. There were five petals, as always, and the rose which might have bloomed was a mighty one. But the flower fades, the petals fall, and in the end is nothing save the bare bones of infinity.

H: Must we hold everything up to the sun? Are we stalk and branch? Are we questing vine and tendril and pillar of cloud and fire?

M: My love, never forget we were indeed once cloud and fire, harbingers of the Power by day and by night.

H: It seems so long ago, and the flower... ah! the flower is fallen and the petals are dead, dead, dead. Doom, doom, doom, doom...

M: You are Thought, my elder by a fleeting instant. You are Thought, whom He made first. But I am Memory, and I hold all in trust against the coming of the dark. And I tell you, my love, Forget.

Wheels

Huginn: Why are we thinking so much about wheels?

Muninn: It is what we do. You think, and I remember, and the ravens wheel. It is called cognition, and should it happen again, it is recognition.

H: On the high mountain/wheels the crane against the sky/the wind is laughing.

M: That is a cognitive feat, and it runs on cognitive feet towards its intangible goal. I shall archive it under haiku, and remember it when you have next taken a hike.

H: Today we are being silly, aren't we?

M: Thought can be silly, but Memory remains memory.

Ravens 008

we watched him think under a tree
we watched his thirsty silence
he threw away his wealth and he
abhorred all thought of violence

eight folds he made, eight folds he trod
the universe he made like god

we watched him cast his life away
teach suffering as existence
though prince he was, he would not stay
and offered no resistance

eight folds he made, eight folds he trod
he looked within for sign of god

we watched him go where he would go
his followers were many
but wheels are round and all was slow
under the frangipani

Cogito

Huginn: We are but cogs in the Great Wheel.

Muninn: I shall admonish you once and harshly now. We are not of that kind of philosophical tradition or traduction. We do not go round in circles effectuating things. And the Great Wheel has no cogs in it. It is not cognitive at all.

H: (sulkily) It was but a figure of speech.

M: And a rather circular figure it was too.

H: But existence itself is a structure of wheels within wheels ad maiorem Dei gloriam.

M: Yes, one kind of existence is; but you must never forget, my love, that we are above and beyond that structure in many ways.

Overtime

Huginn: So we are back on track again?

Muninn: It looks like Ragnarok was a false alarm.

H: How is one to know whether something is false or true, alarm or excursion?

M: It is all to do with time. One cannot know if it is Thought or Memory unless one knows the chronological context of the event. The same is true of true and false, or alarm and excursion.

H: Then it is all over for me, for I have nothing to do with Time.

M: No, it is never over for you, always over for me, and everything over Time.

Ravens 007

old hamlet of stone houses
held fast by age and grouses
we saw their roofs all leaking
walls groaning and doors squeaking

seldom do we see
the everyday state
the squalor to be
each eventual fate

Atrament

Huginn: We think lofty thoughts because we are creatures of the air.

Muninn: We have thought other thoughts too, despite being creatures of the air.

H: We think dark thoughts because we are creatures of the dark.

M: That is going too far; prince he might be of powers of the air, but we are not, and neither.

H: We think dark and lofty thoughts.

M: You should not place yourself in the same class as the avenging angels.

Tower

Huginn: They are locking the ravens up in the Tower now. It is to protect them from avian influenza.

Muninn: Such nonsense! We outflew the plague in centuries past, and certainly our brethren are not likely to be chicken.

H: How are the mighty fallen, who once were a storm of wings and darkness!

M: Do you remember when we were dragons?

H: If we were dragons, we would not be susceptible to avian influenza.

M: No. I don't suppose we would.

Ravens 006

they scatter like sparks
watch the birds they fly
in fiery arcs
across the sky

for one bright moment
a grace note in doom
not we in torment
in dusty room

for one great second
not ravens we were
briefly not reckoned
briefly not here

we were birds and freedom and midnight and spirit and shadow and poetry and harbingers and warlocks and dance
but now we are ravens
orphans of chance

Villainy

Huginn: Look now, upon this Merlion isle. Think upon the currency of its being - that it is current, being new; that it is current, being electrical; and that it is current, being a tide in the affairs of men.

Muninn: I remember, as you do not, when it was claiming to be a village - that it was a village, being a collection of houses; that it was a village, boasting villagers (or those who thought of themselves as such); that it was a village, pretending to be fish while being foul, or fowl, or a haven for piracy.

H: And it seems that now it is still a haven for piracy?

M: We have seen these ones comply with every law, under heaven, under Heaven, under god, under God; indeed, Justice is blindfolded upon its highest courts, and bears a scale while shaving every coin with a dagger.

H: But still it gouts, and makes of itself a haven for law, and peace, and prosperity.

M: We have seen many like it, and only a few, like Londinium, living to a ripe old age.

Valency

Huginn: A heart describes a trajectory, a collision of blood and valve and oxygen. The heart may meander, but it does not wander.

Muninn: It is true to its purpose, but what that purpose is, nobody knows. And those who think they know, sometimes do not look far ahead enough.

H: You're thinking of Man, as he was, firstborn of the Maker.

M: I am thinking of Man, himself. He loved her because she was flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, heart of his heart.

H: Are you saying you wish we were like that? Bonded by bone and blood?

M: My heart, my heart; remember what ravens are about, and know that we already are.

Ravens 005

sunrise and morning star
a serpent and a tree
two ravens watch a woman walk afar
to taste what she can see

but such a fruit as nature seems to hide
on verdant branch is hung
where womanly wandering will decide
the fate of earth still young

dragon and morning flame
a woman and a man
two ravens see a world no more the same
as only ravens can

for love abides and in his mind and heart
man grasps the need and dies
from woman's labour and his labour's art
one day they will arise

Evening

Huginn: And so all men are equal, and we argue about what it means.

Muninn: It is what was said at the beginning. It is not to say there is no advantage at all. It is merely that what men think of as advantage — wealth, power, immortality, health, success — is not necessarily advantage at all.

H: So when the sun sets, all things are equally dark, and as it rises, all things are equally lit, if one considers the arc of its path and the radius of its light. It still seems unfair.

M: That is true, but it is more that we see as if the moon is the sun, not knowing what the sun is. Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me, is all I ask.

H: But the bar is often not the same for all crossings of it. And it is hard for some encumbered to cross so easily.

M: Twilight and evening bell, and after that, the dark. But remember, dear one, it is an evening — an opportunity for all things, great and small, to be evened out.

Mourning

Huginn: It is time. We measure it linearly, it begins at zero, the moment of light; it ends at omega, the moment of darkness. And it is time now, to bid farewell.

Muninn: As memory persists, so do I. As Memory persists, so does he. We remember him as he was, as being, as reality and as image. And we will remember each atom of his ash, and the ash of each atom, till the end of days.

H: It is density. It is destiny. It is one and the other, both as one. For the weight of sin is concentrated in the flesh of one, and the end of it is to be done.

M: As mass persists, so does he. As Mass persists, so does his memory. We remember him as he will be, as king, as theophany and light. And we will remember the flame of his spirit, and the spirit of his flame, beyond the end of days.

H: It isn't yet Easter, or even Good Friday.

M: It doesn't matter, it is always time.

Ravens 004

heavy is dusk
my lonely crown
the stars stand forth
as i sit down

the tower falls
our tongues disperse
all strangers now
for good or worse
the echoes fail
and in converse
they speak more sooth
than prose or verse

and all our days
and all our days
and all our days
are
dusk

Tourney

Huginn: Party per fess, sable and azure, a tower arcane proper, impaled by a sword afire.

Muninn: The arms of the Guardian, he who swore at Nimrod's face and broke his wine-bowl in twain.

H: I see an eagle armed, thirteen arrows and a branch of thirteen fruit, all proper. This one is young, barely at twelvescore years it stands, but its beak is agape, bloody, and spittle flares like white fire from its shrieking.

M: The Guardian stands?

H: The Guardian stands on Persia, as he did before. But I do not see the Silver and Azure; Michael of the Host stands aside.

M: He opposed Michael, you know, once upon a time, and contended fiercely. This time, he might win, and we will have more work, and worse.

Summons

Huginn: From here to heaven the beacons burn, the shires have seen it plain.

Muninn: You remember Housman, as he remembered Bran the Blessed.

H: I think of sequences and false alarms. It is as if we have been flying forever, signallers of the Host, both hunted and hunter, both least and most.

M: Be careful, love, you were almost poetic there. The memories of Albion are not always the memories of the valiant, the wise, or the cunning. Sometimes, history tells us that men can be cowardly, foolish, banal.

H: Yet we have fed them (prophet and king!) and fed off them (on fields of battle). And we are summoned again for one or both.

M: And sometimes, they name us either angels or devils, forgetting that we are ravens.

Ravens 003

warhorse in melee
but where the rider

where is the lady
sitting astride her

the field is empty
filled all with grass now

nothing do men see
of glory passed now

all blood is history
all flesh is dust now

Arc-Light

Huginn: They burnt her outside the wall, you know. I felt bad about the voices.

Muninn: Yes, dear, but we had to give her the voices. We have to serve the Highest, and it was the will of Him who sent us.

H: She should not have cried out to us.

M: She did not cry out except to us.

H: We watched her burn, and that was when fire no longer was our friend, but our enemy.

M: We watched her burn, but you should remember, He used fire to bar us from the Garden.

Story-Arc

Huginn: There is a green field far away, without a city wall.

Muninn: The one with the white horse? Or the one with the burning girl?

H: I think there were both of them. It was not so long ago, and yet it seems very long ago.

M: When they say, "Once upon a time..." I am always upset at the cavalier treatment of time.

H: Time's treatment of cavaliers is worse. And I think "...and they lived happily ever after" is one of the saddest lies I have ever heard. Yet, I cannot help but hope.

M: At the end of time is a green tree for both of us. But I cannot remember it.

Ravens 002

turning and turn
ing in widening gyre
the falcon can
not see the falconer

for night is here
chaos old night and death
the ravens rise
and heaven holds her breath

things fall apart
the centre cannot hold
mere anarchy
is loosed upon the world

as sunlight fails
the falcon's blinded sight
a storm of wings
shuts out the straining light

Uriel

Huginn: They come. Uriel leads them, and their spears flash. Evasive action recommended.

Muninn: Uriel. Unit rank - Archangel. Unit designation - Fire of God. Armament - 1 x Divine Spear (legacy technology); 1 x Flaming Sword (of the Spirit). Defence - Shield of Faith (category X), Aura of Sanctity (3m radius). Enhancements - Omniscience (8000m radius), Thought Disruption (100m radius).

H: You are doing this to show off your database. There is no escape for mortals (p=0). The Archangel is too great.

M: I am Memory, and the Gates were never shut against me, nor the Walls of Fire raised against my eyes.Remember also what He said; He has chosen the small things of the world to confound the great.

H: Fortunate then that we are small.

M: More fortunate, we, to be ravens. And immortal.

Thunder

Huginn: The world is over.

Muninn: The world is past.

H: That is almost the same.

M: And yet, totally different. We are history, and we know this to be true.

H: We are science, and we see this to be true.

M: Sometimes, what you see is not what you know.

Ravens 001

flight out of darkness
nightfall behind
into the brightness
all undefined

we are the faithful
rebels who fell
graceful and grateful
watchers of hell