This year, I celebrate Imbolc with a new song of my own.  Birdsong The Raven’s eye sees everything, From winter’s death to birth of spring, He favors neither slave nor king But Bran’s own blessed singers. Broad wings beat the air in flight As life and death war through the night And Raven oversees the […]

I’ve been working away on dozens of little projects, and then a million things happened at once.  I’m still processing.  I wrote a new song, and I love it.  It started out on a very different path than it eventually carved for itself.   I went to an event most of my closest friends don’t attend. […]

I’ve never been wild about competitions, particularly Bardic competitions, because of a myriad of reasons.  We all do things differently; we have different styles and time-periods that interest us; we focus more or less on spoken or sung pieces; favor different vocal styles; and on and on and on.  I think I’ve participated in six as […]

“Fatten your animal for sacrifice, poet,  but keep your muse slender. —” Καλλίμαχος/Callimachus 310/305–240 BC Scholar at the Library of Alexandria

The Song of Wandering Aengus William Butler Yeats I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in […]

Wherever You Woke by Dermot Bolger There only ever was one street      One back garden, one bedroom: Wherever you woke you woke beneath      The ceiling where you were born, For the briefest unconscious second      An eyelid’s flutter from home. I found this in a compilation called Soho Square Six […]

It dawned on me I had never translated this most famous passage from Irish mythology, so I set to work.  From Lebor gabála Érenn: The book of the Invasions of Ireland. I worked from the text here.  Audio file Am gáeth i mmuir. ar domni. Am tond trethan i tír. Am fúaim mara. Am dam secht ndírend. […]

So, this happened:  Mine is the penultimate piece.   It was interesting to be recorded.  Like many people, I had a hard time getting used to the sound of myself, but I think I’ve now messed with recordings enough now that I do indeed recognize my own voice at a remove. Everyone involved with this […]

The Fyrdraca is a reproduction ship built in 1979 by the venerable Longship Company and sold to some intrepid kooks in 2003–it made its way to my friend Richard, and he still keeps her afloat after all this time.  I’m busy and happy and writing, and hoping some day soon to see her in person again after so […]

I’ve been writing and not mentioning it here, for whatever reason, and organizing thoughts and words into little collections.  Let’s rectify that. Naming Deirdre’s Mother grew out of my very strong, angry reaction to the treatment of Deirdre and her unnamed mother as I’ve been translating the Exile of the Sons of Usnech into English. […]