Here we are, stuck at home during a pandemic.  Far from ideal, that.  I can’t fix anything major, but I can share a little bit of art and hopefully help you pass some time.   Unwaith: a Welsh poem by Elin ap Hywel, translated by Robert Minhinnick An Crann/The Quince by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, translated by […]

The last year has been an absolute whirlwind.  Acting as one of the royal bards, and planning and hosting my elevation to the Order of the Laurel and Alherin’s to the Chivalry was intense and wonderful, but didn’t leave a great deal of time for writing or recording the costuming projects that took up so […]

This year, I celebrate Imbolc with a new song of my own.  Birdsong Spoken introduction Recording of 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 […]

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 […]

This was my challenge for the Celtic component of the Bardic Quest at War of the Wings, 2017.  Boasts have a particular prominence in Celtic mythology: the most famous is the Song of Amergin, but the boasts in Mac Datho’s Pig are also notable.  Audio version You call yourselves Bards? That word is mine– My Mother Tongue gave […]

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. […]