Poetry Friday - Thriller Rap

As if I could post anything else today ...

Rap from Thriller
by Rod Temperton

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller


If you have some time, here's the video of the song. (You can hear Vincent Price around the 6:30 mark.)

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Linda Baie at Teacher Dance. Happy poetry Friday friends! And Happy Halloween!

Monday Poetry Stretch - Kodachrome

Over the last few weeks I have been scanning slides and revisiting old family photos. My uber-cute brother and sister are in the picture below! Don't you just love those Easter basket sunglasses?

While immersed in this project I've been reminded me of a story NPR ran a few years ago about a photo historian who found an archive of more than 14,000 photos taken by Charles W. Cushman. Cushman began using Kodachrome soon after it came out and used it to capture the world in ways it had never been seen before. 

You can hear the story at The Found Archive of Charles W. Cushman. Better yet, you can see some of the photos at Lost and Found: Discover a Black-and-White Era in Full Color.

Our family slides are not great works of art, but they contain an awful lot of history. I'm amazed that this array of images has captured the evolution of the television, clothing, hairstyles, and cars. So, today I'm thinking about old kodachrome and photographs. I hope you'll join me this week in writing about them. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

Tuesday Poetry Stretch - Lipogram

I looked back over the last month and realized I have failed to post a stretch for several weeks now. Mea culpa, mea culpa. If you only knew about all the crazy things happening in my life! Please forgive my absence here. I've missed writing with you! I have been working on a project with the Poetry Princesses that I hope will be unveiled in a few short weeks.

That said, today I'm thinking about the lipogram. A lipogram is a piece of writing that avoids one or more letters of the alphabet. You can read more about lipograms at A.Word.A.Day.

Here is an example of a lipogram. It comes from Gadsby, the 1939 story (more than 50,000 words!) by Ernest Vincent Wright that does not contain the letter E.

"Now, any author, from history's dawn, always had that most important aid to writing: an ability to call upon any word in his dictionary in building up his story. That is, our strict laws as to word construction did not block his path. But in my story that mighty obstruction will constantly stand in my path; for many an important, common word I cannot adopt, owing to its orthography."

Here's another form of lipogram favored by JonArno Lawson in A VOWELLER'S BESTIARY. This alphabet book is based on vowel combinations rather than initial letters. The lipograms in this book exclude certain vowels from each set and include each of the vowels in the word. Here's an example.

Excerpt from  "Moose"
(p. 30) 

Yellow-toothed wolves
lope somewhere close, rove homeless over broken slopes,
overwhelm moose's forest home.
Moose seldom welcome wolves.

So, which letter or letters will you slight? Write a poem this week omitting one or more letters. I Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

Poetry Friday Is On!

Welcome friends to Poetry Friday! I'm thrilled to be your host this week. Today I'm sharing a bit of Robert Frost. He's the one poet I revisit every fall. Whether it's Gathering Leaves, Nothing Gold Can Stay, or After Apple Picking, Frost puts me in the mood for my favorite season.

October
by Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.

Read the poem in its entirety.


I'm rounding this one up old-school style, so please leave a note with a link to your offering in the comments. Happy poetry Friday all!

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Amy Ludwig VanDerwater shares an original poem entitled Each Seed.

Robyn Hood Black shares the work of Grace Futral, the haiku student poet of the month.

Bridget Magee shares an original poem about election season.

Carol Varsalona shares the poem Pretty Words by Elinor Wylie and some thoughts on crafting a poem.

Violet Nesdoly shares an original poem on the allure of fall.

Donna Smith shares an original poem written for a poetry prompt, as well as a found poem created from the lines of other challenge-takers!

Julie Larios shares all kinds of good stuff, including her thoughts the connection between creativity and home, her month-long trip to Oaxaca, and a poem by Nelson Bentley.

Heidi Mordhorst shares a poem by Valerie Worth and her thoughts on using the poem for instruction.

Laura Shovan shares an original poem inspired by the recent eclipse of the full moon.

Michelle Heinrich Barnes shares a poem by Keri Collins Lewis on the season.

Mary Lee Hahn shares a poem by Walt Whitman and some thoughts on science and creativity.

Tara Smith is still thinking of summer and shares the poem Summer Tomatoes by Karina Borowicz.

Laura Purdie Salas shares an original riddle-ku.

Margaret Simon shares the results of students writing zenos.

Jama Rattigan shares excerpts from the rhyming picture book BAKING DAY AT GRANDMA'S by Anika and Christopher Denise and a recipe for chocolate cake! Yum! (Notice which part of the Friday Feast description I've chosen as the link!)

Diane Mayr has lots of goodies today. At Random Noodling she shares some Edgar Allan Poe. At Kurious Kitty she shares a bit of Billy Collins.

Matt Forest Esenwine shares an original zeno.

Tabatha Yeatts shares day a poem by Hong Kong poet Leung Ping-kwan.

Ruth shares several versions of the Pangur Ban poem in honor of their new kitten of the same name.

Linda Baie shares some early Naomi Shihab Nye.

Catherine Johnson shares two original zombie poems.

Joy Acey shares a skeleton poem and a poetry prompt.

Jone MacCulloch shares some thoughts on poetry books and reminds us to NOMINATE BOOKS FOR THE CYBILS!

Charles Waters updates on the good things happening in his life since moving to the Big Apple and shares an original poem.

Tanita Davis stopped in to wave hello from Kidlitcon. She has a poem, and as soon as I have a link I'll post it! Have fun all you folks participating in Kidlitcon this weekend. I wish I was there.

Jeannine Atkins shares some thoughts on writing and a quote from Frost.

Doraine Bennett shares the poem Invitation From a Mole by Alice Schertle.

Little Willow shares the poem For Women Who Are Difficult to Love by Warsan Shire.

Karen Edmisten shares an original poem on Lemony Snicket.

Catherine Flynn shares Poem Without End by Yehuda Aichai.

Andi Sibley shares a review of the book JOSEPHINE: THE DAZZLING LIFE OF JOSEPHINE BAKER by Patricia Hruby Powell.

Ramona shares her experiences promoting the Poetry Storybox project.

Sherry shares the poem October's Bright Blue Weather by Helen Hunt Jackson.

Joyce Ray highlights a new journal of ekphrastic poetry.