The bardic arts were my first art in reenactment. For thirty years I wrote and performed poetry, including rhyming retellings of Irish and Welsh myths and legends, and poems for the seasonal gatherings of my household--without writing a speck of documentation. Documentation was not rewarded in the mercenary/splinter group world. The only piece here that has much in the way of documentation is Ode to Commius, because I wrote it just before I started playing with the SCA, in 2019. There are many more poems, these are just some of my current favorites.
Conception of Taliesin - A storypoem from the Welsh Mabinogion. Includes video. This made me Poet Laureate of Meridies in 1997.
Taliesin Comes of Age - this story-poem picks up at the end of the conception story, but was probably written some centuries later. The magical transformations and strong female antagonist of the previous poem are replaced by court intrigue and weaker supporting female characters, used as pawns. It's less pagan, more obviously written down by Christian monks. Still a good yarn.
Ode to Commius - 11- minute spoken word piece about Commius of the Atrebates, one of the very few Gallo-Belgic heroes about whom we have historic knowledge. Julius Caesar knew him and wrote about him. Includes video and documentation. I heart Commius!
Not-Ballad of Commius - the ode, while lovingly researched, was too long so I wrote a song version. Includes audio recording.
Brewsong - this song presents the steps for all-grain brewing. Includes audio recording.
Ponte Alto Barony Bumblebee Anthem - a silly song celebrating my barony. Includes audio recording.
Bogtown Thump - music and dance video from covid lockdown times. I wrote the filk lyrics.
Time Runs - part of a piece written by request while I was Poet Laureate of Meridies.
Go Round - Couplets about spinning things in the British Iron Age. This won prizes at KASF 2023
Scrolltexts are their own category. I don't do many of these, they are demanding and a lot of pressure. I am proud of the work I have done in this area but I never take these assignments lightly so if you are thinking of asking me to write one, know that it's a Really, Really Big Ask! I don't know if they will get easier the more of them I do, but right now it's a whole lot for me to take on. If you're not familiar with the SCA awards system and all its particulars, this section may not be as accessible.
Arnoddr Chiv Scrolltext - Anglo-Saxon kennings, a lot of alliteration
Teagan Kraken Scrolltext - features rolling rhyme, where the first word of a new line rhymes with the last word of the previous line
Arnoddr Pearl Scrolltext - more kennings, alliteration
Teagan Baroness scrolltext - mostly couplets, structured around listing a role/virtue for each of the six pearls on the band of a baronage coronet
Pagan Poems - these are NOT HISTORICAL, and are only related to reenactment because some of the splinter groups I frequent are also pagan. The SCA is very carefully not religious-- and I very much appreciate that about the SCA! I try to differentiate clearly between SCA reenactment and my pagan interests. The fact that I play more with the SCA these days coincides with a drift away from paganism and towards research and reenactment on my part, although I still do enjoy a maypole dance, a bonfire on the beach at the summer solstice, or the burning of a wicker man at Samhain. Most of these poems are from my twenties and thirties, when I was well and truly in the pagan scene. Some are more trite than others. No apologies, I was young and it was what people wanted.
Embrace of Brigit and Lugh at Imbolc
Dance with Aoife at the Summer Solstice - published in The Oak A&S newsletter for the Kingdom of Atlantia, as part of the "Anything But a Haiku" poetry challenge, July 2023 but written in the mid-1990s