Octopus (October)

At Melbourne University I studied Anglo-Saxon, including the aenigma (Latin) or riddles (English) in the Exeter Book. It was formative. These charming mnemonics describe something without naming it, the principle self-evident. After October 1976 I started making up riddles of my own, including this early example in, understandably, eight lines: “His eyes see a thousand nights, / His numerous flesh shifts shades. / His paths make rubbery figures, / His clouds are fluid departure. / His progress is slopping cartwheels, / His form an animate bagpipes. / His coat of arms wrap water, / His sky is flocked with hulls.”