Hello and welcome to Cook and Crank, the Cosmic Poetry Podcast. I'm your host, Simon Pole, the Cosmic Poet. Some people travel great physical distances to escape their demons. Others travel far from themselves in the few square blocks where they were born. But in the end we do all come home one way or another. Such is the topics of today's poem called Angel Free, which we will hear after the break. Angel Free for Christopher Taps the Jaybird on the ground, hollow sound, hollow sound, taps the jaybird on the tree, owling scree, owling scree Taps the Jaybird on your head, is he dead? Is he dead? Late the boaters brought you home in the foam, in the foam, to a bed on shady turf pounds the surf, pounds the surf, sinking is the sun of day, wailing spray, wailing spray Many summers were you lost, tempest tossed, tempest tossed, toiling where the sea cows roar, vacant shore, vacant shore, wintering in cabins cold, icebergs bold, icebergs bold blood spit one day in a trough, ragged cough, ragged cough, pepper spice and honey drunk, putrid bunk, putrid bunk left aboard a drifting skiff, charnal whiff, charnal whiff Mother crying by the grave, demons rave, demons rave, priestly prayer and bishop blessed, demons rest, demons rest Seagull skim the placid sea, ever angel floating free Happy Bee, happy be have just heard Angel Free from the poetry collection Poems for Ocean. I'm your cosmic poet and host, Simon Pohl. Visit the website SimonPole.ca for more cosmic poetry, including the book we've just read from. We'll be back soon on the Cook and Crank Podcast with more readings from the Poems for Ocean collection. Until then, remember, poetry is the water of life, though whiskey might be too. Goodbye.