Daye 12 / Tales From The Blue Pig

you'll come upon the blue pig
quite unexpectedly
down one of those strange leafy little lanes
leading from larkhill to flowery field
it was established in the late sixties
by a commune of radical hippies
who called themselves the madhatters
and had previously lived
on a dilapidated farm
somewhere in dunham
they based the blue pig upon
a.c.c.’s accounts of the white hart
hoping it would
evolve into something similar
if you're familiar with those stories
then you’ll already know
that it’s no use me telling you
exactly where the blue pig is
because very few people
who set out
to get there
will ever actually arrive

so for your initial visit
a guide is essential
after that you'll probably
be all right if you are
good at psychgeography
or can rely on your intuition
or your luck
but to be honest
they don't need more clientele
at least not on a sunday evening
the place is already
dangerously overcrowded
all that I am allowed to say then
about its location
is that the whole building shudders occasionally
with the vibration of some low-flying craft
that nobody has ever seen
and that if you crane your neck far enough
out of the window of the attic room
you can just see
the lid of the dome chapel
and the valleys beyond

on the outside
the place looks small
but once you walk through the entrance
the rooms expand infinitely
and extraordinary things happen within
there was the time that under-leary
passing through on his
way to someplace or another
took a wrong turning into the yard
at the rear of the pub
and went missing for four days
before a six man search party
managed to rescue him
‘though they never could find
his dog sandy
which can still be heard
howling from the depths of the yard
on certain nights of the year
though if you look out back
you’ll not see it
another time
whilst delivering a course
in conjuring and techomancy
the notorious dr julian karswell (deceased)
held his monthly meeting
for november of that year
in one of the long dark gallerys
that run the length of the pub cellar
this particular meeting consisted
of a lecture supplemented by a series
of very realistic and terrifying magic-lantern slides
that scared most of the audience
nearly out of their wits
later that same night
one of karswells acolytes
accidently summoned
something that he shouldn’t have
in that same gallery
and the blue pig had to be
closed down for weeks
whilst the place was
thoroughly exorcised

the majority of the clientele
are regulars of many years standing
singers musicians writers
film-makers actors artists
scientists inventors doctors
or magicians
and not all of them are living
but as the blue pig
operates under a different set
of physical laws
to the rest of the universe
this is allowable

sunday evening
is when we get together
to give knowledge freely
and to receive the same back
or to tell tales
some of which do seem very tall
or to find our muse
subject of our next book
inspiration for a song lyric
missing line for a future script
leading lady for a latest production
maybe to hear music
from another time and space
or to be frightened out of our skins
by magus dee and crowley
or to work on banned and supressed technology
under the guiding hands
of reich and tesla
to search for the great works
of the past, present and future
in the endlessly-tiered libraries
that stretch up for miles
on the third floor
or to trudge the galleries down below
where can be found lost art treasures
future artifacts
and once
beneath that yard at the rear
even a lost continent
we learn about
the u.n.i.v.e.r.s.e.
and all that it is not
and all that it is
and how to put it to good use
and how it
has put us to good use