Autumn

Poem Spark Oct. 29-Nov. 12 - Autumn (possibly spooky) Poems

Greetings and Salutations, my fellow poets!

Every year I usually dedicate the spark that falls around Halloween to spooky poems. However, just as I was googling my usual favorite creepy poems for this spark, I happened to glance outside: the brilliant autumn wind whipped a few dry leaves past my window just as one of the many crows that live around my house launched itself skyward. It wasn't spooky at all. It was exhilarating. The wind, the sky, and the smell of mold and dry chaff that rattles around the yard at this time of year are all spooky, but those things can also be so much more.

With that in mind, here are a few of my favorite spooky poems:

Shakespeare — Three Witches from Macbeth

Poe — The Raven

Jonson — Third Charm from Masque of Queens


But also, here are some excellent poems that capture the spirit of autumn, beyond spookiness:

Glück — October (section I)

Hoch — Late Autumn Wasp

Wright — Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

Faiz — When Autumn Came


For this poem spark, write an autumn poem. It can be spooky or it can be majestic and haunting. It's up to you to choose what part of this season speaks most strongly when you glance outside. Good luck!

.

I am recovering

Again. Yet another surgery. Happily this one was voluntary, but still, weird. Soon I will start writing again and bicycling again and generally feeling like myself again, but right now I'm hiding in my bedroom with a good book and some chocolate.

Poem Spark Oct. 15-29 - Water Poems

Greetings fellow poets!

Last Monday my husband and I took the kids to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a delightful trip. The primary aquarium building sits on Pier 3 of the harbor. As we made our way through the building using a series of escalators, water surrounded us. The harbor outside surrounded the building. The enormous tanks within surrounded the people filtering through the exhibits. At every level, we were able to peer over a balcony edge down into the lowest tank filled with stingrays flying gracefully through the water.

Of course, I don't really visit anywhere without thinking of the implications for poetry. As I walked with my family through the exhibits, different poems about water flickered through my thoughts: Elizabeth Bishop's At the Fishouses, and William Carlos Williams' Landscape With The Fall of Icarus were the first two that came to mind.

When I finally came home that evening, I searched the web to find other water poems:

Meng Hao-jan's Night on the Great River

Walt Whitman's As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life

Pablo Neruda's Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market


Your spark: write a poem about water—the ocean, a sea, a river, a lake, or even the rain. The form of the water is up to you. The important thing to remember is the water itself, in all its lovely and mysterious forms. Good luck!

Zany questions Blog-tag

Well, my friend Brenda tagged me. Cool. :-)

And in turn, I tag Larina and Julie.

What is your favourite guilty pleasure?
Green & Black's Chocolate Caramel Bars. I know they're bad for me, but I can't help myself. They're best consumed at 9 pm. Be sure to refrigerate them.

How do you take your coffee?

I don't because I drink tea.

Who were you in a previous life?

I was probably a bug. Wouldn't suprise me a bit.

What is the worst film you ever paid to see?

War of the Roses. I actually walked out of the theater in the middle.

What is the best thing you can ‘buy for’/’do with’ a dollar? / a euro?

Fold it up into an origami creature.

What is the worst present you’ve ever received?
Sperm-soap on a rope. Seriously. It was an ugly gray-green and looked like a giant slug. My aunt thought that it would be an appropriate wedding gift.

What is your favourite word?
This changes depending on my mood. My latest favorite word is disheartened. Or maybe discombobulated. Do I have to pick?

If you are curious

This is what my ankle CT scan looked like before surgery. Notice the little fragments:


And this is an X-Ray of what my ankle looks like after surgery. The best part: you can actually feel one of the screw-heads right through my skin: