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Do you remember running like the air Through rushing branches, scrambling toward the sea Pursuing hidden cities, and aware That magic creatures watched invisibly? Do you remember searching in the sand For hermit crabs, and shattered crumbs of stone Beyond the realm of chores and reprimand By secret dunes you journeyed to alone Or singing, when the starlight washed your hair, Invented words to a familiar tune And hearing echoes from a dragon's lair And hurling thoughtless pebbles at the moon? Do you remember flying, wondering why Adults who saw you, didn't want to try?

Suppose there is a distant planet inhabited only by three people. Each of these three people is perfectly rational. Each lives in a separate room, totally unconnected to the other two. They cannot communicate with each other. However, each knows that the other two live on the same planet, and each knows that the other two are also perfectly rational. One day all three people learn that a huge meteor is coming toward their planet. If it hits, it will destroy all life on the planet, including them. All three people want very much to preserve both their own lives and the lives of the other two. The planet has a missile defense system designed

Two-thirds Of a knight Sits unmoving under burnished steel; His sword, or someone's, extends vertically From a nearby shadow, pitted brick-red, Similarly lifeless. There are others - Just as, on first sighting two leaves in the forest So too are there "others." But the leaves, early fallen From a blood-red autumn, Are scarcely discernible through the surge of crows Ebbing and roiling, black on black on black In the lengthening twilight. The vision dims halfway to reality. The prophet is yet new; Her eyes, still white with shock, Have not yet faded into numbness From a hundred such visions. Presently she looks forward, Sees

The stars are falling - his first thought, upon The sight of snow, before today unseen; Descending vectors, fractal-point are drawn Across the vision-scope of the machine. The robot's palm extends; his pixeled eyes Record, by frames, what metal cannot feel And neural nets unbidden analyze The sight of frozen water over steel. Behind him stands the conference hall, whose door Projects inviting warmth on salted stairs - And here, in laughing groups of two and four (And wrapped in coats of other mammals' hairs) The first distinguished scientists arrive To argue over whether he's alive.

Too young to fear, though not yet brave We chanced the arbitrary wave And scorned alike both home and shore Disdaining legend's wiser lore - That beast of idle sailors' talk: Austromenock! The flashing night cascaded grim On heaven's flowering diadem; We watched the sea uncoiling whip Resurgent bellows past our ship. Whose visage caused our craft to rock? Austromenock! Omniscient eye! Serrated claw And barnacle-encrusted maw! Unnumbered arms - a panoply Of suckered limbs beneath the sea And thickened plates that interlock - Austromenock! Behold our doom: the waters spoke; Our hull they splintered at a stroke And timbers

A Field Guide to Fantasy Creatures Banshee - A woman, dressed in white, who makes appearances to sing or recite poetry the night before a loved one is to die. Until very recently (when new legislation was introduced to protect consumers) life insurance companies frequently cancelled policies upon reports of banshee sightings. Great care must be taken to distinguish between banshee singing and banshee yodeling, as the latter merely indicates that you will, at some point tonight, accidentally ram your shin into the coffee table. Basilisk - The origin of the phrase "If looks could kill." The basilisk is a small lizard-like creature hatched fro

The Bard to His Love, at Length It is a tale as old as history itself: two young lovers, one mortal, one immortal, drawn together by the strands of Fate. But ah, amorous youth! - the journey is not an easy one. Let us gaze upon one such scene, even now in progress, and witness the tragic tragedy of a romance that was never meant to be... BARD: O splendid Queen, to mine own heart so dear Whose eyes, twin suns, twin lanterns, gleam sublime Thy subjects dot the vast celestial sphere Thy praises, ranks of cherubs constant chime Thy face, like Helen, launched a thousand hearts Though Helen never spoke as fair as thee, Whose dulcet voice i

The first: Yule season starts near Halloween And bloated, swells to pester New Year's Eve (Thanksgiving sandwiched somewhere in between). Behold our jolly prophet: we believe 'Tis profit both to give and to receive! The second: O how fallen, wise men's star That lighting Rome, set all the world ablaze; Have we of God's anointed sunk so far That we must sing our plastic Savior's praise Beneath His halo's blinking neon rays? The third: exchanging Sunday's itchy dress For blue jeans and a T-shirt by the flames We gaze through glass on frosted wilderness And whistling bits of Rudolph's reindeer games Swap scraps inscribed with Secre

I live. The sea is calm; the sky is gray. The stars and moon by night, the sun by day. I understand some parts of what I see - What madness drives the world to be this way? It piqued my wonder - I, the musing cat Saw lights within the mist from where I sat What question haunts the placid symmetry? Accursed fog! I know not even that! Will ignorance and wonder never cease? I pace the halls by night for want of peace. By day, the mind distracted, never free; Almost - almost! - I hunger for release. I beat against the curtains like a fool Whose master is both generous and cruel Meanwhile, and unconcerned by such as me The rain fall