Tag Archives: songs

February 2, 2026 · 11:42 am

FAWM 2: Golden Chanterelle

Yesterday, we made our characters for a short-shot DND game my sister-in-law is DMing for us over the next few weeks. I’d never played a Druid, so I chose that class–Circle of Spores, baby! BECAUSE MUSHROOMS! (And decay!) (Thus, I named my character “Golden Chanterelle.” Possibly “Chant” for short. Or “Goldie.”)

And I love Changelings, so that’s the race I chose. I like shapeshifting, not only into animals but other things as well.

Background is “Feylost”–also a first for me. I love a girl who falls through a mushroom circle. And it’s sort of backwards for Changelings, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

So anyway, I figured I’d write today’s FAWMling song à la D&D, in the manner of my people. (My people being specifically… Dr. Mary Crowell, of “I Have Missed You at My Table” and “I Put My Low Stat.”)

I think I’ll spend the first half of the month writing lyrics, and then the second half of the month working up melodies or collaborating for them.

Golden Chanterelle

Whiff of nectar, golden-sweet
Smell of honey, dripping mead
Draw too near, you might find more
Breathing in her cloud of spore

She is Golden Chanterelle
Coat of moss and fairy bells
Fell asleep and fell through worlds
Now she walks, a wild girl

Under hemlock, under fir
You might find a trace of her
Look again, she’ll disappear
Misty-stepping far from here

She is Golden Chanterelle
Coat of moss and fairy bells
Fell asleep and fell through worlds
Now she walks, a wild girl

Giant boar and wild bear
Tiger, spider, goat, or hare
Chanterelle is girl and beast
Isn’t anybody’s feast

She is Golden Chanterelle
Coat of moss and fairy bells
Fell asleep and fell through worlds
Now she walks, a wild girl

BRIDGE

What can she protect?
What can she preserve?
Whom is she looking for?
Whom will she serve?

Hungry to connect
Afraid to be seen
Shy in the shadows
She hides in the green

She is Golden Chanterelle
Coat of moss and fairy bells
Fell asleep and fell through worlds
Now she walks, a wild girl

Song for Caitlyn

(I started this in June 2023, around the same time I was starting to think of Hags of the Thorn. Which meant I was thinking of Ballads from a Distant Star. Which meant I was thinking of Caitlyn Paxson. I don’t have a tune for it, but nor did I think it should just repine in my journal forever…)

Caitlyn, it’s been a long time
Since the mines
Since the days all of silver and ore
My hair has gone gray
And my hips lost their sway
But you’ll still find me dancing
On festival days

How have you been since that dawn
In the dim
When you stood in your black cotton dress?
Saying “Clara, I loathe
All this labor and load
I’m longing to wander
Our unquiet roads”

Caitlyn, you vanished from mountain
And glen
When you shook off the dust and the grime
Like a knight on a hill
Standing tall and so still
And the mists rose to take you
O wither they willed

Caitlyn, we’ve changed since that day
That you left
Our walls are of good solid stone
The roads are all paved
We’re no longer enslaved
We don’t speak of silver
Still less of the ways

Wherever you wander, O knight
of the storms
On your horse made of fog and of rain
I’ve poured you an ale
And stored many a tale
And my door is ajar
Should you ride through the veil

Should you ever return to your town
And your friend
With your banner of green and your sword
Though you’ve passed into lore
I remain, evermore
Your Clara, who loves you
From shore to the shore
For shore to the silvery shore

Orange & Bee Salon!

I was asked to be at a guest at the Orange Salon, hosted by editors Carina and Nike at theorangebee.substack.com, a fairy tale journal. They will be hosting salons for paying subscribers, and this was their first!

We did a Q&A and a reading, and then I ran a short “Infernal Salon” with our Negocios Infernales cards, “the Deck of Destiny.” Nike asked me as a sweet favor to sing them all a song on my way out, so I wrote a song based on my card draw. It’s a VERY simple melody, and I probably don’t stay on key, but I recorded it for posterity, and shall link to it below.

I do write songs occasionally in case any of you reading this don’t know that yet. You can find most of them here: https://brimstonerhine.bandcamp.com. My first two attempts at music-making are EPs: Alecto! Alecto! (retellings of women in myth), and The Headless Bride (monstrous women and sea chanteys). And then I made one album: Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir (each song written for the backers who backed my EPs at a high level, so it’s kind of a hodgepodge.)

If I make another, it’ll be Ballads from a Distant Star, my collaborative sci-fi musical concept album. And then, who knows? Maybe the 6-episode musical podcast The Devil and Lady Midnight…

Here were the cards I drew! Below are the lyrics and the very fast, quick, and rough recording LOL.

Pearl in the shell, foam on the sea
Way-oh, the song goes
How it has been, and how it must be
Way-oh, and round she goes, round she goes, the world-oh

Rose on the thorn, moon in the sky
Way-oh, the song goes
All things are born, and all things must die
Way-oh, and round she goes, round she goes, the world-oh

Kings for their crowns, dragons for gold
Way-oh, the song goes
Crows for their black, snow for its cold
Way-oh, and round she goes, round she goes, the world-oh

Rise up and dance, rise up and sing
Way-oh, the song goes
Harvest in fall what’s planted in spring
Way-oh, and round she goes, round she goes, the world-oh

Now is the dusk, now is the dark
Way-oh, the song goes
Now is the winter, teeth of a shark
Way-oh, and round she goes, round she goes, the world-oh

Put down your work, come out and play
Way-oh, the song goes
Live in the light while still it is day
Way-oh, and round she goes, round she goes, the world-oh

Tag Archives: songs

FAWM 2: Golden Chanterelle

Song for Caitlyn

Orange & Bee Salon!

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