Poem: Oglacha

This is a poem I wrote for a Danelaw that had an Irish theme, Cattle Raids to be precise.  The oglacha is an apprentice version of the dan direach form, which is allowed more liberties. I attempted to follow dan direach conventions as strictly as possible, with the exception of meter, my Achilles heel.

Oglacha for a Fall Day

Sundered stones scudding across the sere sky

Skystorm clouds clad the clear cold day

Day calm like this I can see to a bold high heaven

High heaven far flung for other men made

Men made for the coppery clang and clash

Clash and clamor of a Cooley cattle raid

Raid red rough and bright brilliant

Brilliant shields shining sunbright

Sunbright underneath a distant dawn

Dawn here had the calm air chill

Chill cold simple scent of slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse smell of warm wet animals

Animals sickly steaming above the cool stone

Stone sluiced savage, close clung with messages

Messages marking high heaven indeed is for other men

Men unweary, men unlike this troubled troubadour

Troubador troubled by the lonely lowing

Lowing lost kyne cast upon the sundered stones.

Bow Breaking

This is a video of a guy breaking a bow. It’s probably inordinately hilarious to me, because of how many bows I’ve broken.

But, as they say, “If you ain’t breakin’ em, you ain’t makin’ em.”

Hooray for first post!

Hello! This is Cindy Watkins, known in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) as Talia de Morales, and this is my blog for all my crafty SCA related endeavors.

My main SCA related arts & science interest is bowyery, which is the art of making bows. I prefer making bows out of traditional materials, using traditional techniques whenever possible (and practical.) Fiberglass? *Ptooo!* I spit on fiberglass! Lips that touch fiberglass shall not touch mine, etcetera and so forth. In any case, there should be lots of bow related goodness going up on this page.

I love to cross stitch, and was mistakenly under the impression that it was a modern invention. However, excitingly for me, it seems that cross stitch has been around for quite some time and is “in-period” for the SCA, so that gives me an excuse to post awesome cross stich things. :3 Learning other forms of embroidery is on my bucket list as well. *sighs* So many things to learn, so little time, so many hallucinations if I don’t sleep at least 6 hours a night, so many creditors with big knives coming to cut my hands off if I don’t go to work.

I’m also a poetry enthusiast and write a good bit, though in my own work I tend to stick to free verse and prose poetry. However, I enjoy the occasional challenge of working in the more restrictive environment of traditional verse forms, even though I am terrible at scansion and meter. So the occasional poem will probably be forthcoming. 🙂