Lehrblogger

Every once in a while one comes across a sphinx (or other creature), and it can be useful to know something that Google doesn’t…

1. My four lines all meet at a single place,
   I hide nothing behind this outer face.
   I’m cyclic like that circular serpent,
   Each of us eternally recurrent.
   Although you first met me just recently,
   I’ll introduce myself eternally.

2. Everyone wants a break from me,
   Attempting to charm me is often self-deceiving.
   Some consider me to be quite the lady,
   Although I tend to run out and go streaking.

3. Turning my back to you is out of the question.
   I’m sometimes half full, but never half empty.
   Artificiality plagues my every companion,
   So I play with the waves and the sea.

4. I have twelve faces and forty digits. What am I?

These are quite old, from August 2003, but come in handy every so often. The improvement to the first one was made more recently, in February 2009.