This year at FenCon I took the lyric writing workshop held by Bill and Brenda Sutton. I have been wanting to explore songwriting for a while, but as I have no musical background or experience, that had to wait. FenCon offered the perfect opportunity to get into writing lyrics, which are similar to writing poetry but with cool things like refrains and bridges. None of which I actually used in my finished song, as you will see.

The class brainstormed an idea — Vikings — and concepts and then with a bit of background information we were sent forth to create. The idea was to return the same time the next day with a refrain, or a bridge, or a lyric or two.

Y’all, there are some talented people out there. Maybe the songs were imperfect, but they had lines of true beauty or comedy, depending. So here’s mine (and as always, all words copyright Patrice Sarath):

Gray is the whale road, Cold is the sea,

Brave is my lady, Handfast to me.

Eager the longships, Icy the sails,

Stiff is the scabbard, Heavy the mail.

None can withstand us. They flee when we come,

Our swords bite and render, To the ominous drums.

Dark is the shaman, Who curses my line,

Cold is the shudder, That runs up my spine.

Blazing the starlight, Black are the waves,

Uneasy the Viking, Who sails to his grave.

Grey is the whale road, Grey is the sea.

Cold is my lady, ‘Twas handfast to me.


2 Comments

Allan · November 26, 2016 at 1:23 pm

Patrice,
Nice lyric. Are you interested in a musical collaboration? To wit: I/we make a music bed [arrangement] or two or three for your perusal. You listen at your leisure, singing your lyric along with. If we get that far, we then convene to record vocals [yours/mine/ours/whomever’s] to mix with the music bed. L, AG

Patrice Sarath · November 27, 2016 at 10:30 am

Hey Allan!

I would be delighted. I think I want to create a bridge and chorus for this as well. Definitely looking forward to seeing what you have.

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