Tom Hirons

- Retired dragon-subduer now plays with needles and skins

Coyopa

Website:

coyopa.net

Falcon Boy
Ten years as a leatherworker and part-time dragon-hunter in Scotland now sees Tom nestled in a green corner of Dartmoor, gathering word-bundles in the woods for his peculiar spells of allegory, metaphor and scurrilous lie. Amongst the trees and the rock-strewn hills, he sometimes finds the rhythm beneath the rhythm and the story beneath the story. Not quite Zen and not quite Not, he will point to the ground and say only, 'This' before wrapping himself in the skins of deer and returning to his adoration of the land.

Tom is author of at least two unpublished novels - fragments of which can be found on the Coyopa website - and a veritable menagerie of poetry and short prose pieces, scattered hither and thither across the internet. He is currently enjoying the honey-filled learning curves of the clarinet and (under the cover of darkness and church-bells) the wild shrieks of the English Border Pipes...

His work appeared in the final edition of the Journal of Mythic Arts, alongside that of Rima Staines (thehermitage here on Lazy Gramophone and elsewhere) with whom he lives, both under the watchful (blue) eye of Macha, a grey and white griffin that sometimes pretends to be a lurcher. They are working on all manner of projects that are too exciting for the tongue to tell, too magical for the mind to imagine. He says he'll keep us all posted.

In Edinburgh for some years, Tom was co-host and resident storyteller at the very wonderful and much-missed open-mic feast, Kin. As far as the writer is aware, Tom has been carried on a throne along the Royal Mile of the Scottish capital more times than anyone in living memory. But that, dear reader, is another story altogether.

When he isn't wrestling angels or gathering words from the hills, Tom studies for an acupuncture degree, which keeps him right in a bodhisattva kind of a way. Since he has now retired from active duty, sightings of dragons and other such Wyrms should now be referred to the relevant regional Dragon Control Board, but Tom is still available on these occasions in a strictly consultative role (see his website for fees, typically to be paid in niobium and used gluons.)
Words from Tom
  • A Jack Swift episode, in which Jack is humbled ...

    Written on 16/01/11

    "I have surfed the stars and ridden the wind. I have walked between the worlds, been eaten by a bear and swallowed by the turquoise wolf that steps between the molecules of the sky. I have... read more

  • Weathervane

    Written on 16/01/11

    I don't know. One day to the next, like a weathervane. Today, I think I'm a Zen renunciate. Tomorrow, I'll be a poet again Mad with life and singing in... read more

  • The Wild Breath

    Written on 16/01/11

    Today, the earth began exhaling. All Winter, it held its breath, Kept its fragrance to itself, Held itself so tight, I could feel its ribs ache. But,... read more