Chris Kastle © 2019
The number one question people ask me about my songs is whether I write the words or the music first. For me, it is the words—always the words. The words create the verse; the verse creates the picture; and the picture creates the melody. And the melody–the melody imprints it in our minds. A mind-worm—hopefully a pleasant one! The cadence of the verse–the rhythm of the story is what lures the listener, ensconces the teller in the story and joins them in that singular place and time.
Amor es el Rio (Our Love is the River)
Words and Music by Chris Kastle; Copyright Chris Kastle 2000
Your love is the river that runs through my heart
This song is the music that flows through my soul
Our lives run together in ripples and torrents
Past mountains and valleys ever fast we roll.
Our love is the river; we are one in the river; we are here in the river for all time.
Entwined like the raindrops that fall in the spring
In the heat of the lightning that burns up the sky
Woven together in the height of our passion
In the depths of our love we course on you and I.
Our love is the river; we are one in the river; we are here in the river for all time.
Writing stories in verse can give new direction to our familiar and comfortable pathways. Come equipped with a familiar story in your daypack for this trek along a road less taken. Come away with tools to overcome writer’s block, a new map to rethink and reexamine your words, tailor your language, and bring home a new, versified treatment of an old story! Share it, say it or sing it with me at the 2019 Sharing the Fire Conference.
Want to learn more? Take Chris Kastle’s workshop.
About Chris: Chris Kastle has performed throughout the US and in Canada, Europe, and New Zealand demonstrating her versatility as a vocalist, musician, songwriter and storyteller. Her original works have been described as “exquisite” and possessing “powerful imagery”. She accompanies her songs on finger-style guitar and occasionally fiddle, penny whistle, spoons, bodhran or mandolin. Her book of short, scary maritime stories, From the Icy Fingers of the Deep, received five stars from Goodreads. Chris was presented with the Annette J. Bruce Lifetime Achievement Award by the Florida Storytelling Association. www.chriskastle.com
