{"id":1083,"date":"2010-12-19T10:30:47","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T02:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2013-11-23T19:24:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T11:24:52","slug":"tribute-hilarie-belloc-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/2010\/12\/tribute-hilarie-belloc-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tribute to Hilarie Belloc"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the gloomy gloaming gray, a young man came to me.
\nHe had a twinkle in his eye, which made it hard to see.
\nHe put his hand inside my shirt, to better feel my heart,
\n\u201cSeeing as you\u2019re still alive, I guess I ought to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a balmy baby crocodile in a seashell atop a tree.
\nShe parties with a turbaned Grand Vizier and lunches with an MP.
\nBut when she yawns her jaws, and the birds dance between her teeth,
\nThere\u2019re strands of children hanging there, and this is known as peace.<\/p>\n

Three kitties went exploring, on a mission hand in hand,
\nAnd found, at last, the great Sahara, a paradise of sand.
\nMany kitties later and this litter box, vast as the sea,
\nWas all deplete and browning, used up entirely.<\/p>\n

In Egypt they have the Pharaohs,
\nIn France they have the Kings,
\nBut here in free man\u2019s Sheffield
\nWe\u2019ve made our masters out of things.<\/p>\n

Yet if I owned a thousand feathered peacocks,
\nAnd invested wisely, and made one thousand more,
\nI\u2019d still live in brackish Sheffield,
\nAnd so I\u2019d still be poor.<\/p>\n

I was told there would be magic.
\nI was told I\u2019d wear a crown.
\nBut I\u2019ve opened all my empty drawers
\nAnd empty drawers is all I\u2019ve found.<\/p>\n

Maybe somewhere it is Christmas,
\nMaybe somewhere there\u2019s a God,
\nAnd maybe someday there\u2019s a free lunch
\nAnd I\u2019ll escape this maze of gloaming fog.<\/p>\n

Now my eyes had welled with tears, which were plain to see,
\nAnd so the man spoke again, for it seemed he pitied me.<\/p>\n

Today I talked with my wall clock
\nAnd taught it to regret the passing time.
\nNow it flinches every second stroke
\nBecause it thinks it\u2019s dying.<\/p>\n

With these words the old man rose and made to be on his way,
\nBut I\u2019d forgotten he was there, and smartly returned to play.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/h1>\n

\u201cIn soft deluding lies let fools delight. A shadow marks our days, which end in night.\u201d<\/h2>\n

\n

– Hilarie Belloc, children\u2019s author<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the gloomy gloaming gray, a young man came to me. He had a twinkle in his eye, which made it hard to see. He put his hand inside my shirt, to better feel my heart, \u201cSeeing as you\u2019re still alive, I guess I ought to start.\u201d There is a balmy baby crocodile in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[1286,204,187,1290,1289,1288,1285,1287],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","category-writing","tag-baby-crocodiles","tag-christmas","tag-death","tag-deluding-lies","tag-depression","tag-disillusionment","tag-hilarie-belloc","tag-kitties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/1184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}