Danse Macabre

The music is a lively step,
Though in a minor key;
Makes toes to tap and hands to clap
In gay festivity;
Invites the hearers all to dance,
The tune so fast it flies:
But look not at the piper who
Has holes instead of eyes.

Popes and kings and commoners
Are joined in merriment.
Mothers with their babes in arms
Are equally content.
Farmers, merchants, townsmen
Find the music opportune.
Ignore the fleshless fingers
That are tapping out the tune.

From palace down to marketplace
The melody is played.
From hovels and cathedrals
It is equally assayed.
It trills along the harbor,
It rings on castle stones.
None can escape the melody
That echos from the bones.

And when at last the dancers
Gaze upon their troubador,
The music ends and they forget
What they were dancing for.
All memories of daylight fail,
There's none can hope to save
Them all from their descent into
The silence of the grave.

No more for them the joys of life,
The final judgment waits,
Marshalled by Eternity
To their eternal fates.
While in the world they left behind,
As when the world was new,
Death takes up his instrument...

And starts the dance anew.

A Question of Fealty

I am a bard, and though, perhaps I bow
Out of courtesy before your throne,
I give allegiance only to my art,
And to the truth that I'm compelled to speak.
While I might offer friendship to the man
Who wears the crown, I do not give my oath
to his office, or his pretty chair.
For I know that there may come a time
When I must speak hard wisdom in his ear,
Appropriate to a friend, but not a liege,
Regardless that he may not want to hear.
It is my duty and my honor,too:
To bear the burden of speaking the truth,
Sweetening the physik with my verse
To better make the medicine go down.
And so, Your Majesty, do not mistake
My courtesy for my obesiance,
But meet me as a man, our both heads high,
Standing as equals 'fore the higher truth.
For kingships come and go in their own time,
But I must be, and shall remain, a bard.

To Those that I Have Known and Loved

I am at home where ever I may be;
On mountain, hillside, or beside the sea.
I have been gifted with a yearn to roam,
And where I hang my hat I make my home.

When I look back, remembering each place
Where I have been, instead I see each face
Of every person I have called friend;
Which makes me lonesome for each place I've been.

I look ahead desiring to see more
Of all the treasures this world has in store,
Regretting only those I've left behind;
Those whom I've loved, those who to me were kind.

The river of my life must ever flow.
And where the waters lead there must I go.
Yet fondly I look back upon each friend,
And dream of someday seeing them again.

Each passing moment is a precious jewel.
to think them lost or wasted is most cruel.
They should be savored in good company,
That they might shine in glorious memory.

Under the Cross Saltire

Pict and Norman and Briton,
Anglish and Dalriadic Scot.
Shed blood is mingled together
In the soil and never forgot
Longbow and iron age hill fort
The windswept tower of a broch
Standing stones on a hillside
O'erlooking the shores of a loch
Gaelic clans of the Highlands
Lords and lairds of the Plain
Broadswords and lochaber axes
To drive out the English again
Days of battle and warfare
Nights of fire and fear
Iron bands forged together
All under the Cross Saltire

For My Lady

Sultry nights should not be spent alone,

But should be shared with one whose company

Delights the eyes; illuminates the soul,

Completes the formula of "you and me".



Fair music, candle light, a table set

Beside cool waters, laid beneath the stars;

Low conversation, touched with knowing smiles

Punctuated with unspoken dares.



The evening beckons; no plans for the morn.

Let events develop as they please.

Audacity is bred within your eyes;

Familiar rhythms, as we take our ease.



The languid hours pass and we care not.

Scented by night blossoms opening,

Conjoined at hand and heart, we drink the breeze,

Yielding to a sultry evening.

When Did Vampires Get To Be So Hot

with apologies to Sir Elton

Vlad the Impaler was a nasty snot.
The original Dracula, a nice guy...not!
He'd stick it to the Turks in a tender spot.
But when did vampires get to be so hot?

When did vampires get to be so hot?
Why are they romantic and zombies are not?
Soul-less evil undead seem to hit the spot.
Yeah, when did vampires get to be so hot.

Frankenstein's monster is a tragedy.
Anger and frustration's good for sympathy.
But fangs equal charisma, which he just ain't got.
And when did vampires get to be so hot?

Werewolves may be sexy for a little while.
They're always in the mood to do it doggie-style.
But they shed and wet the carpet and they eat your cat.
And no one ever has to house-train a bat.

So when did vampires get to be so hot?
Teen-age girls go weepy at the very thought.
Don't believe the sparkles, that's a line you've bought.
They're really undead monsters that refuse to rot.

Yeah, when did vampires get to be so hot?
It's not your love they want but all the blood you've got.
You're just an entree to them, ordered a-la-cart,
Or maybe a dessert that really hits the spot.

So when did vampires get to be so hot?
When did vampires get to be so hot?
All you need are fangs and you can get a lot.
yeah, when did vampires get to be so hot?

There's a Letting Go to Moving On

There's a letting go to moving on;
One last look before you're gone
Fading to a memory:
Goodbye to who I used to be.

Piled around my feet appears
The detritus of passing years
Accumulated over time,
The landmarks of this life of mine.
I can't allow this bric-a-brac
To tie me down and hold me back.
It's time for me to fly, and so
I cut it loose and let it go.

There's a letting go to moving on;
One last look before you're gone
Fading to a memory:
Goodbye to who I used to be.

An open door is beckoning;
A mystery upon the wing;
A quest to take, adventure waits;
And loss to him who hesitates.
I brush the cobwebs from the door
To pass where I've not gone before,
Accepting what I've long ignored:
The journey is its own reward.

There's a letting go to moving on;
One last look before you're gone
Fading to a memory:
Goodbye to who I used to be.

And when my destination's reached,
And that final barrier's breached,
I'll look back without regret
At all the obstacles I've met.
For every challenge to my will,
The striving made me stronger still.
The stumbling blocks I've overcome
Were paving stones that led me home.

There's a letting go to moving on;
One last look before you're gone
Fading to a memory:
Goodbye to who I used to be.