Category: Despair

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Lycanthrope

“Lycanthrope” composed, performed, and recorded with voice singing original poem and accompaniment on guitar, and banjo by S.R. Bender on December 24, 2015
“Werewolf” painted with gouache by S.R. Bender

Lycanthrope

Darting furtively through the mist

Cursed under lunar brightness

The valiancy of my heart

Slashed by razor teeth

Became my darkest side

Evil enclosing

My nocturnal lair

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mud tracked prints

Find me sprawled

In the dawn of twisted sheets

Like tormented trees

Gnarled from remembering

What blackened life

Is forever gone

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

But only the music

Of wind and owls

And the crackling rain

Had abided my incessant howls

Until yet another night

When gliding clouds

Reveal another full newness of moon

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

S.R. Bender, January 8, 2011

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“The Mermaid” (Child No. 289) from the Ballad Book by John Jacob Niles

“Sailing ships at sea” drawn by Sandy Ross Bender from “Ships in a Stormy Sea off a Coast” by Dutch Painter Ludolf Backhuisen C. 1690 exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2019. *
“The Mermaid” arranged, performed, and recorded by Sandy Ross Bender with voice, guitar and harmonica on March 27, 2021

Oh the stormy winds do blow,

with the landlubbers down below,

And the sailor-men a-climbing to the top,

To haul in the riggin’-o.

T’was Sunday night, our sails were set

We hardly cleared the land-o,

When we spied a mermaid a-swimming by,

A comb and a glass in her hand-o.

The captain plumbed with a lead and a line,

He plumbed for to reach the sand-o,

While the winds and the waves did toss and roar,

We knew we’d never see land-o.

Then three times ’round went our gallant ship,

And three times more went she,

And the mate and the cabin boy said goodbye,

As we sank in the salt, salt sea.