Song
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For the first time in nearly ten years, I’ll be back in local coffeehouses playing music with my sons — except now it’s the next generation! Shortly after I released At the In Between in 2012, I began “touring” with my two eldest sons. We played wineries, coffee shops, and farmer’s markets and made many
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Ever since I listened to Malcolm Guite’s YouTube post on November 23rd, 2024, I’ve been pondering what he shared about music and silence and noise as inspired by Sophie Jones. (You should listen to BOTH presentations!) For me, it immediately inspired the thought, “Wouldn’t that make for a great villanelle!” Of course, the concept of
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Six years after beginning my constellations project, it is finished. I completed “Orion” on April 4, 2018; I finished Aries on June 24, 2024. Now that the compilation is complete, I’ll be turning my attention to developing shows around each of the three EPs I have planned around the constellations that appear in each season.
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The beauty of Pisces rests in the tethering. Flipping back through all my drafts of this song, one phrase remained constant: “tether me to you.” The story of Pisces goes back to the mythology surrounding Typhon, the most awful monster the world had ever seen, with a hundred dragon heads with black tongues and eyes
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I started work on “Cassiopeia” back in late February, reading up on the mythology behind the constellation. Once again, we encounter a vain and boastful character whose ultimate demise reminds us of the danger of vanity and unchecked pride. But what stood out to me as even more important was the cost of her vanity.
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When I began to study the myth of Aquarius, the abduction of the young, attractive shepherd boy from his father’s fields bothered me. And the fact that his father seemingly rolled over and yielded to the wishes of the gods in exchange for a pair of “fine” horses or a golden vine puts Tros on
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Arriving late for Christmas day itself, like the magi that arrived much later at the door to Jesus’ home (see Matthew 2:1-12), I come bearing three gifts: two poems and a song. I have spent the last seven days savoring time with family between my son’s wedding and celebrating Christmas itself. If you have a
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According to Constellation-Guide.com, “In Greek mythology, Aquila is identified as the eagle that carried Zeus’ thunderbolts and was once dispatched by the god to carry Ganymede, the young Trojan boy Zeus desired, to Olympus to be the cup bearer of the gods.” Sure, there are other possible connections to Zeus’s lustful pursuits of women, but,
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Moving into a new week, I find Mary Oliver’s poetry rich with invitations to live life more fully, to deepen in the places where we have been planted, and to radiate joy in the midst of suffering, remembering our part in the glorious tapestry of life. I almost packed a few poems into this post,
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Rather than draw from one of the Greek myths for this song, I went to the Roman story of Cygnus, Phaethon, and Helios. (Read a short summary HERE) The contrast between Phaethon and Cygnus immediately struck me, and I saw in Phaethon both Adam in the Garden of Eden and humanity in general, dazzled by
the deepening ground 