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Nettle-Eater
YOU WERE NEVER MORE LOST THAN YOU ARE NOW, IF YOU CANNOT REACH OUT, TOUCH THE WILD EARTH AND WEEP...
Living wild on Dartmoor, a man eats only nettles. His body disappears; he learns to fly. He encounters demigods and eloquent trees. He is Nettle-Eater, crooked, arrogant, self-proclaimed bastard of the moor. This is his testament. By Tom Hirons, author of Sometimes a Wild God, also available from Hedgespoken Press.
First seen as a previous version in Dark Mountain III, Nettle-Eater is a short, sharp prose-howl in the direction of genuine and magical wildness and an uncompromising love-letter to the wild places of Dartmoor. Hovering over the pages is the ghost of Milarepa, the Tibetan saint who - it is said - survived on a nettle-diet for seven years, achieved a powerful enlightenment and became Tibet's best-loved bad-kid-turned-good. Nettle-Eater is written to be read aloud as a prayer to the wild earth and a reminder to us mortals that our lives are short and on fire and that there is no better time to remember our essential nature than this instant, no better time to discard the masquerade of our civilised lives than now...
Living wild on Dartmoor, a man eats only nettles. His body disappears; he learns to fly. He encounters demigods and eloquent trees. He is Nettle-Eater, crooked, arrogant, self-proclaimed bastard of the moor. This is his testament. By Tom Hirons, author of Sometimes a Wild God, also available from Hedgespoken Press.
First seen as a previous version in Dark Mountain III, Nettle-Eater is a short, sharp prose-howl in the direction of genuine and magical wildness and an uncompromising love-letter to the wild places of Dartmoor. Hovering over the pages is the ghost of Milarepa, the Tibetan saint who - it is said - survived on a nettle-diet for seven years, achieved a powerful enlightenment and became Tibet's best-loved bad-kid-turned-good. Nettle-Eater is written to be read aloud as a prayer to the wild earth and a reminder to us mortals that our lives are short and on fire and that there is no better time to remember our essential nature than this instant, no better time to discard the masquerade of our civilised lives than now...
26 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 15, 2018
A seed, a kernel, a roasted chestnut of a chapbook, something to warm you up.
But only a single one nestled in brown paper.
Chew slowly.
"I have become a stranger to the world of fork and knife, but I have been accepted as an intimate friend by the great, beloved moor.
The owls know me; the buzzards know me; the oak-trees know me and the rocks know me. I lean towards them and know them back. I, nettle-eater, wasted, crooked bastard of the wild."
"And you, sitting there?
Do you know these things?
Look at the world beyond your door.
Your life is on fire.
Run!"
But only a single one nestled in brown paper.
Chew slowly.
"I have become a stranger to the world of fork and knife, but I have been accepted as an intimate friend by the great, beloved moor.
The owls know me; the buzzards know me; the oak-trees know me and the rocks know me. I lean towards them and know them back. I, nettle-eater, wasted, crooked bastard of the wild."
"And you, sitting there?
Do you know these things?
Look at the world beyond your door.
Your life is on fire.
Run!"
July 10, 2024
"I walked up the long hill from Town into the wild of nettles and ignored the screaming animals of my addictions and dreams and desires. Civilisation fell off my back like dust and lies."
October 30, 2019
This is an interesting insight into an artist mind. I think I own everything by Hirons (that can be obtained in the US) - so this was a delight.
There was a deliberately disjointed feeling - the way a dream moves without limitation.
There was a deliberately disjointed feeling - the way a dream moves without limitation.
July 25, 2018
Beautiful and awakening!
January 26, 2024
"Some sadnesses are too great to be borne in a life built upon sanity."
This little book is one of the best things I've read in a while. Teeming with wildness, humor, and truth, it's a parchment scrolled quest for stuck people and progressing people alike. There are two things that this narrator knows: desperate urgency, and unrushed bliss. It's the comfort and kick in the ass that everyone needs.
I need everyone to read this, immediately (please). xx
This little book is one of the best things I've read in a while. Teeming with wildness, humor, and truth, it's a parchment scrolled quest for stuck people and progressing people alike. There are two things that this narrator knows: desperate urgency, and unrushed bliss. It's the comfort and kick in the ass that everyone needs.
I need everyone to read this, immediately (please). xx
October 3, 2023
Nettle-Eater is one of the most beautiful short stories I have ever read and has had a much-needed influence on my own writing. Tom Hiron's way of crafting stories is impeccable - I wish it was longer.
December 5, 2020
I appreciate the sentiment but if you tried that sort of genuine and magical wildness here you'd be dead in no time. Yes, I know, I'm being too literal-minded. I will say though that sometimes what might work well as poetry comes across as mannered in prose.
December 19, 2022
If you would like a quick snack of a book that's not about anything but seeps into the world of becoming feral and unhuman, find a copy of Nettle-Eater by Tom Hutons.
#handmade #wildness #shortstory
#handmade #wildness #shortstory
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews