This one is kind of a personal excersise in patterns. I set out to make a short and sweet poem with a really intricate structure... so here it is.

The first stanza is just free form, and it's meant to be a "legend" for the rest of it...kind of like a map.

Now it goes backwards.

First, I allow myself one word out of the blue, then I go backwards through each letter NINE (9) times before I can use another random word again.

If in going backwords, I find a full word that works, I count it as 1. If half the word spells something, I'll use it as 1, too. Other than that, I make up a word for each letter, until I've done NINE (9).

If I'm stuck on a word at 8 counts (like "sometimes" in the second stanza of the poem)..I allow myself to cheat and use a "-" to make it two words, but still part of the initial S.

If you made it through all this, thanks for caring.