To Brig o' Dread thou com'st at last

[sovay]

My poem "Every Night and All" has been accepted by Nightmare Magazine. It is a poem of plague as much as the underworld; the title comes from the refrain of the "Lyke-Wake Dirge," which I learned as a child from the singing of Buffy Sainte-Marie. It has threaded through my work ever since. (It plays a fleeting but central role in "The Boatman's Cure.") Years later I discovered she was singing a variation on the classical arrangement by Benjamin Britten, but as much as I admire the eerie lilt of Peter Pears' famously dry white tenor, less like the living waking the dead than one ghost calling another down, the old sistrum jangle behind Sainte-Marie terrified me in childhood and no amount of strings and horns can change that even now.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Congratulations!

[sovay]

Congratulations!

Thank you!

[gwynnega]

Wonderful news! (That Buffy Sainte-Marie track is quite eerie. I love her and don't listen to her nearly enough.)

[sovay]

Wonderful news!

Thank you!

(That Buffy Sainte-Marie track is quite eerie. I love her and don't listen to her nearly enough.)

Fire & Fleet & Candlelight (1967) is the album of hers I know best, but she was one of the voices always around the house in my childhood. My mother used to be told she looked like her. (It was not untrue.)

[yhlee]

Yay poem!!

[sovay]

Yay poem!!

Thank you!

[asakiyume]

There are some eerie sounds that just hit somewhere in the bones.

Congratulations on the sale!

[sovay]

There are some eerie sounds that just hit somewhere in the bones.

Yes. This song has always sounded like deep time to me.

Congratulations on the sale!

Thank you!

[ashlyme]

Dear God, it's the first time I've ever heard this (or *any* Buffy Sainte-Marie) and it's chilled me - in good ways. I had goosepimples just listening. That vibrato. Her voice sounds as old as the land. Thank you for the introduction. <3 (I love the way you write of voices like wine. Apparently I have a glass of Peter Pears in front of me as I type. )

[ashlyme]

PS: I said it on FB, but it bears repeating - congratulations!

[sovay]

PS: I said it on FB, but it bears repeating - congratulations!

Thank you! I really am pleased; I have not sold this market poetry before.

[davidgillon]

Ah, double congratulations needed then!

[sovay]

Ah, double congratulations needed then!

Thank you and thank you!

[sovay]

I had goosepimples just listening. That vibrato. Her voice sounds as old as the land. Thank you for the introduction.

You're welcome! Yes. She does sound like the earth. You believe she knows what's under it.

(I love the way you write of voices like wine. Apparently I have a glass of Peter Pears in front of me as I type.)

Hee! Tell him I say hi.

[ashlyme]

*She does sound like the earth. You believe she knows what's under it.*

If you'd played this to me without telling me who it was, I'd have assumed an older Briton, rather than a young indigenous Canadian. I've met geology I could imagine sounding like this. *shivers*

*Hee! Tell him I said hi.*

He says hello back. I'm probably going to the same hell as Kenneth Williams for this, but Mr Pears tastes quite nice.

(Must investigate some Britten.)

[selkie]

I just think we should play it in the little subway that runs between the House and the Senate. All the time. For ever. As a reminder of give and take.

[sovay]

I just think we should play it in the little subway that runs between the House and the Senate. All the time. For ever. As a reminder of give and take.

You keep saying you're not a moral person, but then you keep saying things like this.

[selkie]

I don’t think I can be moral because I don’t twitch very hard at some kinds of murder, but if you take a post for the public good and you reap its rewards, it’s your duty to make with the hosen and shoon in proportion and abundance.

Lotta barefoot unhoused people sleeping on the steps of those white stone buildings in DC.

[nineweaving]

Oooooh. Speaking of the earth singing, I wish Lal Waterson had ever done the "Lyke-Wake Dirge." It would have been a different perfect.

Congratulations. Your poem wakes.

Nine

[sovay]

Speaking of the earth singing, I wish Lal Waterson had ever done the "Lyke-Wake Dirge."

I'm really surprised the Watersons never recorded it. It would have fit anywhere on Frost and Fire (1965).

Congratulations. Your poem wakes.

Thank you.

[nineweaving]

You'd think they would have, it being so much their landscape, but no. And now I keep imagining they must have, in some alternative world I can't get to.

Nine

[sovay]

And now I keep imagining they must have, in some alternative world I can't get to.

I mean, you did write it.

[nineweaving]

I mean, you did write it.

That's one of the nicest compliments I've ever had. I'm pink with pleasure.

*hugs*

Nine

[oracne]

Yay sale!

[sovay]

Yay sale!

Thank you!