They Say the Sirens Left the Seas
()
About this ebook
The last dragon faces his death...
A magician bases his life on a misheard word...
A teenager goes looking for his friends' girlfriends, none of whom have ever been seen...
46 poems by James Hutchings.
James Hutchings
James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Enchanted Conversation and fiction365 among other markets.
Read more from James Hutchings
(Volume II) Ideas and Inspiration for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdeas and Inspiration for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTelelee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo-Fisted Tweets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Death and Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to They Say the Sirens Left the Seas
Related ebooks
A Little Sister's Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight of the Dying Moon Second Edition: The Peculiar Adventures of Miss Abigail Crumb, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarionette: The Dark Carousel, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Spider Harmed in the Making of this Book: An Anthology of Spiderlit for Arachne's Eighth Anniversary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnsnared Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gravity of Existence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMidsummer Dance: Book III of the Troutespond Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taxidermist's Lover Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Aurora Chronicles: The Escaped Prisoner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Grand Tour: Jackson's Unreal Circus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrisking the Betweens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoacher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncharted Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom of Valletta Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ascending Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Taxi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Girl Named Cricket Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsY4x4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Book of Allsorts: Fun, Fear, Laughter and Disaster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inkwell presents: Ultrasensory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA is for Apocalypse: Alphabet Anthologies, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Dove, Run Through the Fire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWisdom Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Loneliness of Stars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThumperino Superbunny and the Pirates of the High Seas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Fires And Profitable Ghosts: A Book Of Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Fairy Called Stop Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mythical Mystical Tales And Adventures Of Talbot T. Yarnspinner. On A Rainy November Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight of the Dying Moon: Abby Crumb, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Road and Other Liars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Fantasy For You
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empire of the Vampire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Tollbooth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tress of the Emerald Sea: Secret Projects, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The Expanded and Revised 1891 Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wizard's First Rule Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Desert: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of the Dragon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Unkindness of Magicians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mistborn: Secret History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Empire: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for They Say the Sirens Left the Seas
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
They Say the Sirens Left the Seas - James Hutchings
They Say the Sirens Left the Seas
Published by James Hutchings at Smashwords
Copyright 2014 James Hutchings
++++
Dedicated to Heather: editor and muse.
Thanks also to Nadia for her reading and criticism.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
The Ship In the Clouds
Automation
The Cat and the Toad
untitled (One empty day the Muse declined to guide me...
)
How the Trolls Were Driven From Telelee
The Weather Here Is Like a Happy Drunk
She Was, If I Were Forced to Guess
The Death of Pan
Epitaph (I worked on a construction site...
)
The Rat Beneath My House
The Idol
Saranac Prison
The Lamb
How the Ape Got Its Frown
I Dreamt I Died and Went to Hell
Short Mohawks
Once a Bird Going East Met a Bird Going West
Though None Are Born With Whip In Hand
untitled (If every word that any human hand...
)
They Say the Sirens Left the Seas
The Doom of Agnar Haakonsson
Irreconcilable Differences
The Place of Dogs
The Prettiest Girl in the School
A Cold Wind Off the Sea
The Assignation (based on the story of the same name by Lord Dunsany)
untitled (I met my cat's unblinking stare...
)
The Magician
Angel Square
Epitaph for Reza Barati
The First Verse of Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name' as a Shakespearean Sonnet
untitled (Once a ship sailed out alone...
)
Bountiful, Wyoming
untitled (I'm a pro at online dating...
)
Yashub-Geb
I Love You Like a Corpse Inside a Crypt
untitled (Philosophers of ancient times were clear...
)
The Trials of Jenny Brown
A Cool and Green and Downward-Sloping Path
Maturity
I Was Walking Through Wasteground One Evening (Based on the folk story 'The King of the Cats')
untitled (The blacks were homeless....
)
Two Towns Away
Time and the Tradesman (based on the story of the same name by Lord Dunsany)
Epitaph (The world decreed...
)
Cats At Night (Inspired by 'The Cats of Ulthar' by H.P. Lovecraft)
Creative Commons license
contacting me
++++
Acknowledgments
'Angel Square' and 'She Was, If I Were Forced to Guess' originally appeared in Barnwood.
'The Ship In the Clouds' and 'Yashub-Geb' originally appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.
'The Assignation' originally appeared in New Myths.
'The Cat and the Toad' originally appeared in Polu Texni.
'Bountiful, Wyoming' originally appeared in Punchnel's.
'Time and the Tradesman' originally appeared in Silver Blade.
'A Cool and Dark and Downward-Sloping Path', 'The Death of Pan', 'The First Verse of Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name as a Shakespearean Sonnet', 'Saranac Prison' and 'They Say the Sirens Left the Seas' originally appeared in Strong Verse.
'The Prettiest Girl in the School' and 'The Rat Beneath My House' originally appeared in Visions With Voices.
'How the Ape Got Its Frown', 'Irreconcilable Differences', 'I Was Walking Through Wasteground One Evening' and 'Once a Bird Going East Met a Bird Going West' originally appeared in Wisdom Crieth Without.
(back to contents)
++++
The Ship In the Clouds
I was walking alone on a wet stretch of stone
that the guidebook had claimed was a beach
and the sea was as gray as my spirits that day
and I sighed as if robbed of my speech.
And it seemed as I sighed that the world must have died
for the sea and the stones and the hills
had been wrapped in a shroud of the heaviest cloud
and lay cold, and unspeaking, and still.