The Windhover Tapes by Warren Norwood

 

The Windhover Tapes is a tetralogy by Warren Norwood. Book 4 is Planet of Flowers, and I suspect that I am the only person in the Northern Hemisphere who owns two copies of this tome. No brag, just fact. And in this case, it's not because of incipient senility (though I'd have to admit that in my current state that is a viable first choice explanation). It's because I was at Half-Price Books and found the entire series...at $1.49 per...and I couldn't remember which one of the four I had at home, having bought it several years ago and put it onto a shelf where it remained, untouched. So I bought all four of them.

If you're wondering why I would buy a tetralogy when I had never gotten around to reading the first book, then I can sum it up for you in one sentence:

This is the story of a man named Gerard Manley, a diplomat who cruises around on his spaceship, The Windhover...and makes tapes about his adventures.

If that's not ringing any bells for you, then I submit for your approval my favorite poem in the English language: "The Windhover," by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
  dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
  As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding 

Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

How much do I love this poem? Well... THIS much:

So happening upon a book (referring to my first time around, hence the singular) which was obviously alluding to my favorite poem required me to purchase it. And I no doubt didn't find out that I'd bought the fourth book of a tetralogy until I got home, which is probably why I put it on the shelf and didn't touch it for several years. Somewhere in the back of my mind I no doubt hoped that I would happen upon the first three books in the series at some point. Of course I could have found them online, but that's not my favorite way to find books. I get a lot more enjoyment out of discovering things by surprise, even if it means going through hundreds of books that I don't care about to get to one that I do. 

That's kind of life in a fuckin' nutshell, isn't it?

ANYway...now that I have The Complete The Windhover Tapes, I am thinking that I need to  BUCKLE! down and Get To It. In fact, maybe that would be a good Daily Devotional Reading Project once I get finished with All That Jazz stuff. 

Mmm-hmm.

News as it happens, so bate your breath.

P.S. Just in case you have a Need To Know..."bated is an abbreviation of the word abated, meaning to lessen in severity or amount."

 (https://grammarist.com/idiom/bated-breath-vs-baited-breath/)