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The story of the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 is well-known.  People died and people suffered, and much of the city was destroyed.  What is less well known is the story of the continuing suffering of the people of Canterbury as they battle bureaucracy and their insurers – those entities they had paid for years to shield them from risk.
 
The Rime of the Venal Insurer is recognisable to those who appreciate poetry, or who had it drummed into them at school, as a parody of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and attempts to match it in rhyme and metre.  It owes everything to Coleridge, but makes no pretence to aspire to the greatness of that work.

A Rime (or rhyme) is defined as a verse or piece of poetry having corresponding sounds at the ends of the lines.
Venal means characterised by corruption.
And an Insurer is a person or company that offers insurance policies in return for premiums.  And therein lies the conundrum for the people of Canterbury.

This piece depicts a fictitious insurer whose love of money is at odds with his conscience.  It charts the course of his adventure to see which will win out.