Rocket Science: Tales from the Orion Arm

Dan Wild

Chapter 1 – The Omniverse The Multiverse was in a particularly bad mood when it first noticed Chuck Marley. It had just snacked on Y77, a small test universe on the fringes of imagination. Y77 was a failed universe and the Multiverse decided to eat it and start again. However, the ingestion of Y77 left …

HMRC pour the Cup of Pain

Dan Wild

It must have been a cold day, greyer than usual for the London bureaucrats who are trying to chase down an alleged tax debt I accrued before I left Olde Blighty. As if Centrelink didn’t provide enough angst for me last year. You’ll recall from a previous post that Centrelink (UK readers, this is Aust. …

Sonnet 3 — After WS

Dan Wild

Scatter my ashes in your vale of kings,Or by a pond secure from frosty wind;Or lake, perhaps, where yesterday’s tidingsBring repose and solace I might yet findFrom the harsh sun that burnt me brown as duskIn autumn. Winter is yet to come, I fear,When sheilas dress refined and smell of muskWhile silent Indian gurus are …

Percy the Pianist: Canto 1, stanzas 51-69

Dan Wild

Previous.. Invocatio:    To its own substance; woven tracery ran Of light firm texture, ribbed and branching, o’er    The solid rind, like a leaf’s veined fan— Of which Love scooped this boat—and with soft motion Piloted it round the circumfluous Ocean.       –Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Witch of Atlas, XXXIII, 308 51The bath continued… The river Lethe …

Percy the Pianist: Canto 1, stanzas 42-50

Dan Wild

Previous… 42[This stanza has intentionally been left blank] 43He slunk into the bath after high tea,Bringing a wafer wiv ‘im. Today he’d sayGoodbye to innocence, as minstrelsyBeckoned – he hoped he’d be able to stayThe course of his dream, but what could allayThe fear? Failure was no longer an optionTo be contemplated at break of …

Percy the Pianist: Canto 1, stanzas 31-41

Dan Wild

Previous.. 31Half a day before the gathering stormRose Percy, not Percival of Wagner’sDour overture, based on the French wormOf Tours – these were really snaky nagas,Like an open pack of Lady gagasBought from a small Chinese tobacconistThat sells everything except hate. No ragasWould be played today, nor would F. LizstBe taken out of the stool …

Percy the Pianist: Canto I, stanzas 21-30

Dan Wild

Stanzas 1-20 21Next eve the band Toucani reconvened,A final chance to demonstrate the planTo put on stage was sound. Absent a fiendOr devilish surprise, the piano manPercy was full prepared, the billy canOf his musical ideas ready to overflow.He was not going to AfghanistanTo liberate or command, althoughHis nerves seemed to say that this was …

The Multiverse – All you need to know

Dan Wild

The multiverse is the universe of universes. Its existence is postulated but not proven. Quantum physicists and philosophers are its most passionate advocates as well as its detractors. I’m a very passionate advocate: it would be nice to know there’s a universe where my neighbours don’t dump rubbish in the recycle bin, leave the lid …

Digression after Bruce Acotyledon’s Seminar – Intellectual verse

Dan Wild

The dear reader will forgive me, first if I address him as “dear”, when his acquaintance I probably have not made nor ever will. Secondly, for assuming that my reader is a ‘he’. The fact is, women do not read my work, and if they did, they would be too embarrassed to admit it and …

Percy the Pianist: A Byronic Poem

Dan Wild

Take heed: nothing below is spoken seriously:No lasting harm has come from poetryExcept to the self-proclaimed poet’s dignity. 1Meet young Percy: our aspiring pianistWhose name has been sufficiently amended:He’s in his prime when all life’s finestPleasures should arrive and wounds intended,Dismissed or put aside. Confidence Should permeate his every move and showA man of influence. …