For space is wide and good friends are too few.
so I’ll see you across the water
still the one & still my daughter
still you grow
& your list is getting shorter
& it’s you who gave the order for you know
all men must die
“Across the Water,” a song for Arya Stark by Beth Kinderman & the Player Characters. I got to hear this live last year at a hotel room party (the way it’s meant to be heard), and let me tell you, the outro is a very good time if you’ve got a receptive audience.
I picked up some stones & then
I made myself a labyrinth
built the walls so high til I
could not see the stars
so tell your metamorphosis
that it is not invited here
those sounds you’re hearing now
are anything but minotaurs
“Refusal of the Call,” by Beth Kinderman, from her upcoming concept album The Hero’s Journey. The Bandcamp description includes this quote from Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces:
“Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless—even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire of renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.