“Score one for the pig,” she said,
but a hunter limping, partially gored
not prudent from the perspective
of a boar.
A roar marks the victory:
Geordie’s blood stains the earth
entrails pour onto leaves
at what is the more satisfying score
for the boar.
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An Outlander poem, based on TV show ep 104 “The Gathering”
I lean against stone
eyes closed
longing for what was
or what will be,
what was lost without
reason or rhyme.
I lean against stone
and in dreams,
see time.
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An Outlander themed poem
In this time
I can watch a TV show
and share thoughts
impressions
giggles
and sighs
with others watching
simultaneously
all across the country.
Humming Twitter feed
makes for good
company.
Unlike chickens.
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#OutlanderCAN #kiltit This poem references a famous line from the first really intimate conversation between Jamie and Claire
“When I woke, I was trussed up in the wagon wi’ the chickens, jolting down the road to Fort William.”
“I see, I said quietly, “I’m sorry. It must have been terrible for you.”
“Oh, aye. Chickens are verra poor company, especially on a long journey.”
Diana Gabaldon. Outlander Toronto: Seal Books. p. 90
My Outlander theme lyrics to Skye Boat Song:
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Called through the stones and carried ‘cross time
Voyaging far from home
All she has known is gone and she roams
Lost beneath Scotland’s pines.
Centuries part
Where is her heart?
Two hundred years away
Two men to love
Prayers to above
Whose love will she betray?
Carried through time, she’s called through the stones
Where will she make her home?
Highland wars loom
they’re leading to doom
Destiny knows its own
Centuries part
Where is her heart?
Two hundred years away
Two men to love
Prayers to above
Whose love will she betray?
Third verse, harp only
Repeat chorus with harp to end.
(c) Shawn L. Bird
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Starz has released the first episode of Outlander, and with it, Bear McCreary’s theme song based on The Skye Boat Song.
I might be going against the current here, but I really don’t like those lyrics Horrendous. Grammatically cringeworthy. I mean seriously, “Say could that lass, be I” ARGGGGGGGGG!!! It hurts me. It really does. Not to mention they’ve stuck “Skye” in there, and Claire never goes to Skye in the books. He has feminized Robert Louis Stevenson’s lyrics to the tune, I understand, but there was no need to do that.
I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is when I complain about something, so here is a poem that fits with the tune of the Skye Boat Song and also reflects the story of Outlander. What’s more, I think it is a better fit for the romantic tone and the essential conflict of the story. Nothing about Skye, and the grammar is correct.
If Starz wishes to replace their lyrics for the next season, I am delighted to offer these. Feel free to send them a link and encourage the idea! 😉 If you’re from Starz, you can find my agent is listed on my About page. Drop her a line, she’ll be delighted to negotiate something.
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Blooper lines:
Centuries part
Where is her heart?
Will she get back to Frank?
Though she is torn
Jamie she’ll mourn
but he is known to spank
PS. I made a video of myself singing and playing the harp (I’ve never been coordinated enough to do that before! How exciting!) The dogs got up and left the room, their ears twitching on the high notes. I listened to the video and apologized to them. Plainly, G is not my key. Yikes! So, while I assure you that this works beautifully, I may have to learn it in another key before I try to demonstrate . 😉 In the meantime, click to play on the video, then scroll up to sing along yourself. Hopefully G is YOUR key. 😉
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Diana Gabaldon line at the Outlander panel at 33 minutes: http://www.starz.com/originals/outlander/extras/qanda
In response to the question, “What was her favourite scene in the series so far?”
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“In terms of
visceral reaction,
honesty
compels me
to add,
You have
one
fine
ass,
Sam!*
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(She actually said, ‘man’ but she was saying it to Sam Heughan so allow poetic licence).
The buttocks in question will available for admiration August 30th, 2014, when it makes its appearance in the fourth episode of Outlander in the US. (We have 2 more weeks to wait in Canada, theoretically).
It’s been a journey of celebrations
seeing dreams unfolding
in flirtatious Twitter assignations,
watching joy unrolling
during this cinematic gestation.
And now, with keen anticipation
all around the Earth
One can feel the vibrations
from fans awaiting this birth:
an incarnation of literary creation.
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Outlander comes to television! Premieres are being aired this weekend. It has been fabulous following along with author Diana Gabaldon as she has shared the fun from the moment the papers were signed and it was official that Ron Moore was turning her books series into an epic television series. We fans were part of the excitement as each character was cast, and I particularly enjoyed watching the delight sparkle in Diana’s eyes as she told me about being on set when she had her cameo!
My joy is vicarious, but it is a very genuine and thorough joy. It is just SO GREAT to experience the adventure of favourite books being transformed for a new media!
In case you don’t know, Outlander is airing in the US on Starz, in Canada on Showcase, and in Australia on Soho. In Canada, we have to wait until August 24th. It’s going to be painful as the American fans have 2 weeks ahead of us!
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and here’s a little more information 🙂
Word came
that the ship was lost:
No survivors.
Her beloved
perished amid a storm
In her dreams
she sees him
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
swimming
sinking
sinking
sinking
drifting
drifting
drifting
on her
tears.
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I suppose this could be about Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon, but in fact, it came from listening to The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman. It also reminds me of a family story.
My grandfather was a ship captain on the St. Lawrence Seaway. One day, a knock came on the door, and my grandmother was told gravely that his ship had sunk, and he was lost. This would no doubt have been far more traumatic, had grandpa not been sitting in the living room at the time.
I discovered this article about regional history around Loch Ness that includes the actual recorded story of ‘Leap o the Cask’ and the ‘Dun Bonnet’ as it shows up in Diana Gabaldon’s books. The story IS about a James Fraser. This is the kind of historical coincidence that tends to give one goose bumps.
I found the reference here:
http://www.caithness.org/caithnessfieldclub/bulletins/2004/historyoffoyers.htm
James Fraser, 9th of Foyers, was on very friendly terms with Simon, 13th Lord Lovat, later to be executed for his part in the 1745 Rising, and on that account, Foyers joined Lovat in supporting Prince Charles during his short reign in Edinburgh as King James VIII. After the disastrous battle of Culloden in 1746 the ill-fated Prince Charles fled westwards and took refuge in Gorthleck farmhouse on the Foyers estate but was soon alarmed by a party of Red Coats and effected his escape by jumping out of a window. Foyers also escaped from the battlefield and his efforts to elude capture were every bit as romantic as those of Prince Charles.
Foyers was excluded from the Act of Parliament pardoning treasonable offences committed in the rebellion, and was forced to live in hiding for seven years after the rebellion. One of his favourite haunts was a cave, a mile to the west of the Falls of Foyers. One day, on looking out of the cave, the laird saw a Red Coat secretly following a girl bringing food for him and, as to avoid capture was a matter of life and death to him, the laird shot the soldier who was buried where he fell. So Foyers’s whereabouts could be kept secret, the inhabitants used to speak of him by the nickname “Bonaid Odhair” (Dun Coloured Bonnet).
After the Battle of Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland’s troops brought much misery and brutality to the district. The estates were plundered and burnt on a scale never before known on account of the proximity of Foyers to Fort Augustus, where Cumberland and his troops were garrisoned. Many people starved to death and many outrages were committed on their persons. At a change-house, An Ire Mhor (a large piece of arable land), on the road to Inverness near Foyers, a group of soldiers, including an officer, raped a young girl living there with her grandmother and, when the old woman tried to defend her grandchild, she was strangled to death. At a funeral, taking place in Foyers cemetery, one of the starving mourners grabbed a loaf of bread off a passing provisions cart heading for Fort Augustus – uproar followed. The offender was arrested and the troops fired indiscriminately into the funeral party, killing at least one and wounding many others. The bullet holes in the grave stone of Donald Fraser of Erchit, buried in 1730, can still be seen to this day. Another outrage was committed on a boy taking a cask of beer to Foyers in his hiding place – when the boy refused to tell of his master’s hiding place, the soldiers cut off his hands.
I’m particularly bemused that one of the bibliographic sources is History of the Frasers by Alex MacKenzie. It makes you wonder if it was printed by A. Malcolm, doesn’t it? 🙂
Here’s a link to some photos of the actual Dun Bonnet cave:
http://alastaircunningham07.blogspot.ca/2007/10/dun-bonnet-cave-from-inside.html
The Inverness Outlander group were able to go explore the cave. Here’s a link to their blog post and photos of the day: https://invernessoutlanders.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/trip-to-the-dun-bonnets-cave Diana said she wouldn’t have gone on this trip because she is too claustrophobic. 🙂
New and improved version of my arrangement of The Skye Boat Song for the double strung Brittany harp. That’s a Scottish clarsach style small harp you see behind me in the thumb nail. I even speak and show you the harp! 😉
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and here are my lyrics referencing Outlander. At some point I’ll record myself singing this, but G isn’t my singing key, so it’s a bit of a stretch!
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“The odd sense of calm with which he’d waked was still with him. Something had changed in the night. Maybe it was sleeping…among the ghosts of his own future.”
Diana Gabaldon
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood.
These lines resonated with me. While the character in this scene is being literal, I think we sleep among the ghosts of our own futures on a frequent basis. For example, you know how they say men carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. The ‘hamartia’ or fatal flaw of literary characters occur within our real lives, and who we will be is created by the decisions that we make.
Destinations require both journeys and beginnings. We go to bed with a decision, and we rise with a spectre of our future self as a result.
I suppose this also works in reverse. If we have a ‘someone’ we want to be, we can only get there by the conscious and sub-conscious decisions we make toward that image of ourselves. Just like if you want to be a teacher, you volunteer with kids, graduate from high school, study at university, so there are steps to every image.
If you want to write a book some day, sit today and pound out two hundred words. Tomorrow pound out five hundred. Get your rhythm, Keep writing. Eventually you will have a book, and eventually, you will have readers.
Shawn L. Bird 