C.A. Sanders's Blog

The Horns Incident

It happened about 20 years ago. I was the best man at my friend’s wedding, in a smallish town in Illinois. Not a “small” town, but definitely on the small side, about 30 minutes from any town of significant size. In truth, it could have been upstate New York, only instead of orchards and beans, it was corn. It was a great wedding, and I had a lot of fun, but that’s not the point. That’s not what happened with the horns…

I was talking with one of my friend’s friends from the area. He was a ver...

Invocation (Modified by C.A. Sanders/Drustan of Old Stonebridges)

Here I took the poem Invocation, believed to be the oldest in Ireland, and wrapped a story around it.

Come closer, dear friends, and I will tell you the story of the oldest poem in Ireland, but more importantly, how we first came here.

Long, long, ago, before the High Kings, we were the Children of Mil, and we had no home. We sailed until we found this beautiful green island. But there were already people living here: the Tuatha de Danann, and they were not interested in sharing. We fought...

The Sailor and His Wife (by C.A. Sanders/ Drustan of Old Stonebridges)

I’ve posted earlier versions of this one, but here is the version I currently do at circles:

The Sailor and His Wife

There was a sailor from Waterford, and he had the perfect life. He loved the sea, the salt spray in his face, he loved his wife. He was as carefree as a southern breeze.

His wife died of a fever while he had sailed away. When he returned, she was already deep in the dirt. He never got to say goodbye

The sailor raged at this injustice. It was not her time, he cried, and...

The Goose Song (by C.A. Sanders/ Drustan of Old Stonebridges)

This one is silly. I decided that The Moose Song, a very dirty and much-maligned song, needed a completely clean parody. And I tend to write about geese a lot

The Goose Song (To the tune of Sweet Betsy from Pike)

I was a child, at a pond near a beach

a toy in one hand, in the other a peach

I laughed and I giggled while drinking the juice

when I was attacked by a horrible goose

Chorus

A goose, a goose, a horrible goose

I was attacked by a horrible goose

His honking...

Sweeney’s Feathers (By C.A. Sanders/ Drustan of Old Stonebridges)

A poem I wrote in the Rhyme Royal poetry style. It is a commentary on the Irish epic Sweeney’s Frenzy

King Sweeney flies from broken branch to tree

His feathers fall behind him soft and gray

Those visions sunrise bright, they fade, they flee

The cursed forgetting, mem’ries drift away

His talons grasp at dreams in dimming day

A punishment from Ronan, holy saint

That Sweeney cries laments beyond restraint

The clan now spies the King plucked bare, they hunt

From nest,...

John Barleycorn’s Revenge (By C.A. Sanders/ Drustan of Old Stonebridges)

A poem the I occasionally do at circles

John Barleycorn’s Revenge

There were three men, three kings of cups

and from the West did fly

with fierce and cruel intentions that

John Barleycorn must die

They cut him down and spread him out

They plowed him broke and torn

But fools they were, did not expect

Revenge of Barleycorn

They ground his bones to bake their bread

His blood they drank as ale

But John returned by sunny June

Thus goes our gruesome tale

The f...

The Selkie’s Son (Song)

I wrote but the lyrics and music to this. It’s been very popular at bardic circles. For some reason, the chords won’t stay in the right place. Generally they switch at the beginning and end of each line

The Selkie’s Son (By C.A. Sanders/ Drustan of Old Stonebridges

Am C

By ten Jack knew what his mother was

F Am

By how she wept on the shore

C F Am ...

The Frog and the Hen (SCA Version)

This is the version I perform at bardic circles

The Frog and the Hen

by C.A. Sanders (Drustan of Old Stonebridges)

The frog lived in a swampy pond, not far from a chicken coop. He slept all day and spent all night croaking as loud as he could with the other frogs, the crickets and the toads. They made beautiful music, but it was so loud that it kept the chickens awake.

One morning, a hen made a great racket, clucking away and waking up the frog. Annoyed, the frog hopped over to t...

Maribell of the Needles (poem version)

Here is the latest version of Maribell, the one I’ve been performing at bardic circles

Maribell of the Needles

By Drustan of Old Stonebridges

I bring a story of love and love’s greatest enemy: time.

In a land no map can find, and a time no man can tell,

the earth a bowl of green, the sky an azure shell

there lived a tailor’s daughter, her name was Maribell.

Maribell was the loveliest girl in the village, with twinkling eyes, a grin curled in mischief, and a mind sharper than...

Life in the Coronaverse: Days 58 – 60

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