piecing together

I'm excited. I may have chosen the last piece of my riddlehoard manuscript. It's a new riddle about Cædmon, who my supervisor suggested I write about. It was an excellent suggestion since I've started writing about specific figures. Cædmon was the earliest known English poet. According to Bede, Cædmon sat in the meadhall, but as the harp reached him, he knew no song and ran out to the barn. He fell asleep amongst the animals, dreamt that was asked to sing, and woke up miraculously knowing the words.. his hymn describes the creation of earth, and likens heaven to a roof.

My poem about Cædmon is a riddle within a riddle... Half the poem consists of the first lines I ever wrote in alliterative verse, and the other half is new. The poem contains a version of Cædmon's hymn but instead of reaching into heaven, the speaker describes the act of digging into earth (with a nod to Heaney).  The act of sorting through sediment is similar to sorting through the wordhoard to build a poem. In invoking both Cædmon and Heaney, I end my manuscript by gesturing to the tradition of poets who have come before me, and posing a final question to the reader.

Anyway, I'm excited to have the final poem in place. I'm starting to get close to ordering the other poems in the collection too.