Praise for Hermes
by Sannion

In gratitude let my lips pour forth praise
for Hermes, the wily one, the master of many guises
clever in his plotting, who wanders over wide ways
with feet so light they never leave a track
for the huntsman to follow. Ghost-like, shifting,
who flits through our thoughts and knows how
to carry off our deepest, most well-guarded secrets,
King of the land of Sleep who guides the
dreams like sheep through one of the two gates
to find their way to us while our bodies rest,
and with the same staff he uses to check
their step he can conjure illusions and
shape reality to his will, he can cause poisonous
roots to spring up from the earth and brew
strange philters to protect against the witch's charms,
for Hermes is great in magic and the inventor of
powerful words. Those words he knows how to use,
to bend the rules of society and trick the canny
businessman out of his money. Hermes wants for
nothing for through hard work, cleverness, the
weaving of fine tales and simple treachery or theft
he can get whatever it is he wants and even
managed to sneak his way into the bed of the lovely
Aphrodite whose soft, warm flesh delighted him so.
Hail Hermes, is there anything you cannot
accomplish? If so I am ignorant of it.

Hermaion
by Oinokhoe

I walk this road, snow crunching beneath my boots,
Cold air hardening my flesh, sinking into my bones.
How long have I been here, beneath a deep blue sky
The stars just arriving, always at the edge of night.

The traveler’s god is around me; he is beside me.
He is within me. He is the stone next to the path,
He is the feral creature leaping into the bushes.
He is laughing, and he is silent. He is watching.

Perhaps I walk just to be moving, to break up the stillness,
To change what I see around me, or what I am.
Perhaps I walk just for those fleeting glimpses
Of something strange and perilous at the corners of my eyes.

When the full cloak of night is draped over me,
Will I miss the shadows, and the hints of light,
Will I long to stop and build a fire to warm my hands,
Or will I finally be at home
In the black, cold wilderness beneath the earth.

Son of Night
by Sannion

Hail son of the Night, Herms of the long-staff, Lord of sleep
and beguiling dreams, who weaves worlds out of the
patterns of his words, keen-thinking master of many
wiles, who can always find the way out of the trap
and turn his enemies' plots against them.
Lord of laughter, who delights in the unexpected,
and will completely rewrite a man's fate just for
his own amusement, whose pranks are famous the world over. Hermes
Master of commerce, whose children are bargain and
deceit, you govern the rules of the marketplace,
and guide the fluid exchange of property,
be it in the form of the canny businessman
trading his goods for more than they're worth,
or the clever thief carrying them off by night.
Ever faithful god of flocks, who keeps the
wolves at bay and guides the shepherd safely
home when the long day is done,
who cares for all strangers and those
who wander far from home
who fills our hearts with longing for adventure
and a thirst to see new sights, hail Hermes!
This song is yours in gratitude for the
kindness you showed me, and I pray my
lord that it is pleasing to your ears, but
if it strikes a dissonant chord with you, O Hermes,
I shall compose many others in your honor, for I
never tire of praising you my lord.

Hermes
by Sannion

Ie ie Hermes!
Staves and rocks and herds of cows and herds of ghosts;
Hats and boots and coins tinkling

- as they fall from cut purses or from hands that have thrown bad dice
Ie ie Hermes!
Pens and roads and treaties and men muttering old spells under the new moon;
Black earth and black night and blue eyes shining out of the shadows

- as footsteps fall on wet cobbles and people hurry home
Ie ie Hermes!