Handsaw and Shitepoke in a Siege

An old friend’s new book to hand, along

With notes on the etymology

Of heron just to the other side,

Both of them giving reason to think—

Are you up for beginning anew

At this late hour? The first friend’s challenge,

Implicitly, is to write your book,

While the second challenge someone else

Invoked perfectly explicitly—

Can you write us a poem on the theme

Of heronry's etymology?

Not that heronry’s a mystery,

But it’s one of those peculiar terms

That seem to belong to poetry,

So show us what you can do with it,

You, who never stop writing up things,

But never manage a book from them,

Never get an offer to publish

A proper book from a gatekeeper.

In your imagination, you see

A prize-winning book named Heronry,

But that’s as far you get with it.

That’s as close as you get to it.

That, and a few lines to do with it.