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!

[gwynnega]

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

[yhlee]

Yay poem!!

[asakiyume]

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

Congratulations on the sale!

[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. )

[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.

[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

[oracne]

Yay sale!