Preface / John Carey -- A Modicum of Aloe -- Hell Guffawed -- White Sheets of Life -- The Stirring of the Muse -- The Eight-Legged Pony -- Knife Used -- The Night That Was In It -- An Eyeful of Derravaragh -- If He Could But Earth Himself -- My Boyhood Epiphany -- I've Cracked It -- Slavery was Abolished -- The Cool Green Garden -- 'head the ball' -- The Sound of Footsteps -- A Dream Being Shattered -- Kernelled Loneliness -- Academics' Thesaurus of Thoughts -- His Human Wasteland.