Thank you again, Steve, for a remarkable and memorable post.
Some snippets from trawling booksellers on-line:
The Bsc perhaps ties up with the early piece below. 'The Rhyme and the Resaon' is on the theme of science and poetry. The music ties up with his writing the words for a mixed chorus and piano piece 'Felicity of the Animal World'. Among the novels seems to be 'Two Northern Stories' and possibly 'Good Wives'. There is also 'Nine Legends' 1991. 'A Muezzin From The Tower Of Darkness Cries' may be the American edition of 'Turkey Observed'. 'Allotments' appeared again in a very limited luxury edition in 1991 with a foreword by Alan Titchmarsh, the ubiquitous British gardening guru. There's a 20 page introduction to 'Gengis Khan' about the Mongolian language and RPL's research methods.
The Origin of Species
by R. P. Lister, 1948
At the bottom of a chasm
Long before the birth of Time
Lay a piece of protoplasm
In the paleozoic slime.
The mud flats oozed and bubbled,
And the vapors swirled and stank;
But his conscience was untroubled,
For he neither smoked nor drank.
The air was full of acid
And he breathed it all day long,
But his thoughts were calm and placid
For he never done no wrong.
Very humble was his station
He had never heard of Wells
Yet he fathered all creation
By the splitting of his cells.
Every nation small or splendid
(Even when of Nordic blood)
Is in point of fact descended
From that simple lump of mud.
From that humble organ's splitting
Came both crocodile and cow
Yet I cannot help admitting
They are very different now.
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