Hello and welcome to Cook and Crank, the Cosmic Poetry Podcast. I'm your host, Simon Pole, the Cosmic Poet. The Giant in the Marsh is the title of today's fairy tale in verse form, a haunted and magical place with unusual denizens. There we will visit after the break. The giant in the marsh A giant in black marshes dwelt, and there he hacked and hewed. The giant combed his lousy pelt, and little children stewed. The giant in his belly felt, the bloody broth he brewed. The giant he in sickness knelt, and drinking it he rooed. The giant he lay down and snored, and mushrooms were his bed, and though the lion snuffed and roared, and licked his sleeping head, he would not wake, and near his hoard of gold and rubies red the fairies stole, and this they stored in caves where no trail led. The giant lies in bone piled heap, a skeleton picked clean. The giant will forever sleep and feed the lions lean. The fairies will his treasure keep and rub the coinage keen, but children in the presence leap of he who's ever been. I'm your cosmic poet and host Simon Pole. 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.