What am I?

  1.   Voiceless I cry,
        Wingless I flutter,
        Toothless I bite,
        And mouthless I mutter.  s

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  2.   Some say the gods are crying when I come upon your land.
        Some say the gods are smiling when I leave you once again.
        You hope that I will come, when I have been away too long.
        You complain when I am here, and wish that I were gone.
        My companions may be frightful, but you love the things I bring;
        Like the food upon your table and the flowers in the Spring.  wb

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  3.   No legs have I to dance,
        No lungs have I to breathe,
        No life have I to live or die
        And yet I do all three.  e

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  4.   I cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
        Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
        I lie in deep caverns under a hill,
        And empty holes I fill.  e

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  5.    I'm alive without breath,
        As cold as death;
        Never thirsty, ever drinking,
        All in mail and never clinking.  e

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  6.   All things I devour:
        Bird, beast, tree, and flower;
        I gnaw iron and bite steel;
        And grind hard stones to meal.
        I'll slay a king, ruin a town,
        And beat high mountains down.  e

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  7.   I have a mouth and never speak,
        I have a bed but never sleep.  s

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  8.   I Run smoother than any rhyme,
        I Love to fall but cannot climb!  s

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  9.   My life can be measured in hours,
        I serve by being devoured.
        Thin, I am quick; Fat, I am slow,
        Water and wind are my foe.  e

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10.   Friends and family wish you well,
        So kindly lies they often tell,
        But I will look you in the eye,
        And I can never tell a lie.  wb

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11.    I am part man and part tree,
         I hate the termite as much as the flea.
         My tracks do not match,
         and my limbs may detach,
         but I'm not a strange creature to see.  e

        (Stranger today than when this was written)

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12.    My root tops my trunk, I'm a backward thing,
         I grow in the winter and die in the spring.  s

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13.    I've never been seen and never been heard.
         My sound can never be spoken.
         If you speak a single word,
         I will be gone, or broken.   e

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14.    They say that I am coming near,
         Some with joy and some with fear.
         Though you expect me to appear,
         You will Never find me here.  e

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15.    I appear once in every minute, twice in every moment,
         And yet never in one hundred thousand years.  e

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16.   My tines are long.
        My tines are short.
        My tines end ere
        My first report.  s

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Riddle me this?

 1.    They can't be seen when by yourself.
        They should be shared with someone else.
        They appear when things in jest are said.
        The longest word I ever read.  wb

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 2.    Four and twenty blackbirds
        sitting in the rain.
        One of them was shot and killed.
        How many birds remain?   e

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 3.    As I was going to St. Ives,
        I met a man with seven wives;   
        Every wife had seven sacks;
        Every sack had seven cats;
        Every cat had seven kits.
        Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
        How many were going to St. Ives?  s

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 4.    A beggar's brother drowned at sea,
        But the man who drowned no brother had he,
        If the first two lines are true and sound,
        What Was the beggar to the man who drowned?  e

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 5.    What do most people love more than life
        And fear more than death or mortal strife?
        What do poor people have that the rich require,
        And if we're content, what do we desire?
        What does the miser spend and the wastrel save,
        And what will we carry to our grave!   e

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 6.     I built a square cabin with no imperfection,
        Though each outer wall faced the same direction.
        Then I witnessed a bear with a fearsome claw.
        What color was the bear I saw?  wb

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Compiled and edited by Wilson Brown