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Throwback Thursday: “Squirm” (1976)!

I remember being fairly unimpressed with “Squirm” (1976) as a kid, but maybe that’s because I saw it on television in the 1980’s.  (It might have been a bowdlerized version deemed safe for broadcast.)  The movie was just a disposable, lower-budget 70’s monster flick with a what seemed like a hastily conceived plot device — some downed electrical lines had the unlikely effect of turning ordinary earthworms into wriggling man-eaters that attacked en masse.

“Squirm” evidently scared at least some people, though.  A pal of mine on Facebook said it really got under her skin when she was a girl.  She couldn’t eat spaghetti for weeks after seeing this movie.

Hey, if the film wasn’t exactly terrifying, you’ve got to admit that its plethora of international marketing posters was damned artistic.  Check ’em out below.  I believe they’re what today’s kids would describe as “metal AF.”  That second one has some genuinely discomfiting Freudian undercurrents, but still.

 

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FUTURE SHOCK.

Just a reminder, guys … if you care to keep track of my various poemy-type things or strange stories, you can always check my Future publication page right here at the blog.  If somebody doesn’t keep tabs on me, I’m bound to get into trouble.

I hope you all are looking forward to a terrific Autumn!

 

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I’m getting Down in the Dirt again.

I got some great news tonight — I’ll get to see my poetry featured in Scars Publications’ Down in the Dirt magazine for a third time.  My poem “The Writer” will appear in the May 2020 issue.

The poem will also appear this week at the Scars website.  (The publisher produces both Down in the Dirt and cc&d magazines.)  Finally, “The Writer” might also be featured in future Down in the Dirt collections; the magazine regularly reprints selected poems in anthology format.  (I was lucky enough last March to see my poem “hens staring upward” reprinted in The Flickering Light anthology following its initial publication.)

Thank you, Editor Janet Kuypers, for allowing me to join the range of talented voices that are regularly showcased by Down in the Dirt!

 

 

 

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“The poison of the Snake & Newt/ Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot.”

The poison of the Snake & Newt
Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot.
The poison of the Honey Bee
Is the Artist’s Jealousy.
The Prince’s Robes & Beggars Rags
Are Toadstools on the Misers Bags.
A Truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the Lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so —
Man was made for Joy & Woe.
And when this we rightly know
Thro the World we safely go.
Joy & Woe are woven fine —
A Clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

— excerpt from William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence”

 

L0040023 Woodcut of a branch from the common yew tree (taxus baccata).