Ice Age ~ Revised Version in older English style
I enjoyed writing this piece for the reason that appears at its ending. I enjoy olde englishe; there is a slower speed about it that suits me. So I pulled it from the archive, having been reminded by Winter’s grip last week … what I had not expected, though, was the question raised in a drama and which is quoted at the very end. Yes, indeed. Why So? Faith is resolute, religion demands I climb back into the box. Religion appears somewhat chastened at my reply.
What ‘tis this ethereal realm
Encased in water
That doth appearest solidified thus?
How so,
That Ice shouldst my being transportest
another realm
another world
another earth …?
Where all wouldst seemest thou
to me
to be in mutual abeyance!
How come, so?
That life, aye life itself,
doth seem to be
on the pause
as betwixt a man who steps forth
then hovereth
frighteth of his next step
and so dost linger
in mid-air
and on one foot?
Ist God Hisself mocking us?
But as man hovereth
he knows full well
that come the thaw
Great Vistas of Beauty
shalt breathe forth
in abundance
Upon us?
What marvel!
What delight!
A glimpse of an Realm
beyond our Own …
beyond our Reckoning
Aye, it be so …
so that it do’est no’rt more
than to point us to
our smallness
our insignificance!
18 February 2021
All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb
First Written December 3, 2014 upon receiving confirmation that to ensure defeat, my weaponry must be hormonal and radiotherapy
Victory assured when my armoury opened up still wider to faith and determination and an iron will
but with a reckoning too : not mine, but Yours be done
*
Yet Who?
Far, far larger and beyond the comprehension of any and every sacred text
That which makes Biblical a mere sentence
That which makes Islam an ink dot
How does it go?
“I don’t. It’s just mythology.
I like churches though,
the peace.”
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
