Poet

Less often poet than lyricist, since my verses (and choruses) are usually composed with the tune to which they'll be sung already running in my head.

But I have done the "poetry thing" - Open Mike Night, Featured Poet at bookstore gatherings - and, quite frankly, didn't much care for it. (Or maybe it was just some of the "poets" I didn't care for.) Either way, I view that experiment much as I view major surgery: an interesting experience, something that needed to be done, data for the memory banks every writer relies on, and not something I'd voluntarily do again.

Now and then, however, I turn my pen to what I think of as actual poetry. Something not meant to be set to a tune, but read from the page or listened to delivered by unaccompanied voice. It is, after all, a traditional bardic form and ranked equally with "tune" and "tale". And, now and then, it is the best way to get across a point or lesson that needs be made.

There's an example of such on The Ladies of Trade Town. Titled "They Say There Were No Women Bards", it was initially written to satisfy one of the requirements of an SCA bardic competition. It's one of those pieces better "heard" than "read", as on the CD, and I commend it to you.

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