“All Souls’ Day,” Jakub Schikaneder, 1888

Oil on canvas.

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“For poetry makes nothing happen …”

“… Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.”

— from W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” 1940

 

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Cover to “Superman vs. Aliens” #1, Dan Jurgens and Kevin Nowlan, 1995

DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

 

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Achtung, Nerdy.

Apparently some of my poetry readings were picked up by a video hosting site in Germany?  I … don’t know how any of this works, to be honest.  But it looks like the De-Visions platform borrowed a few readings from my Youtube account and then shared them in a different video format(?)

I honestly don’t mind.  Thanks for the exposure, De-Visions.

The readings include my interpretation of Philippe Atherton-Blenkiron’s superb “Operation Staffhound,” as well as Jenny S.’s readings of my poems.

Gonna write a bestselling romance novel.

Gonna be about a beautiful woman falling in love with a Montana horse rancher — although he has a debilitating cold and a sore throat.

Gonna call it The Hoarse Whisperer.

Am I brilliant or what?  Let’s take a vote — yea or neigh?  (Quit stallion.)

Hey, it can’t all be “A” material, alright?  And when you’re sick with a nasty cold, you write jokes like this.

Please — nobody tell me if this pun has been done before.  I’m tired of learning that time travelers are stealing my jokes and then posting them in the past.

And if you argue this joke is bad, then I demand equus time.

[Update: OMG, I kid you not — right after I posted this, I picked up a new WordPress follower named “Horst.”  You can’t make this stuff up, people. (And if you are reading this, my new German friend, I do not mean to offend you.)]

 

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“Diogenes,” Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1873

Oil on canvas.

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“Crying, my little one, footsore and weary” by Christina Rosetti, 1893

Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?
  Fall asleep, pretty one, warm on my shoulder:
I must tramp on through the winter night dreary,
  While the snow falls on me colder and colder.

You are my one, and I have not another;
  Sleep soft, my darling, my trouble and treasure;
Sleep warm and soft in the arms of your mother,
  Dreaming of pretty things, dreaming of pleasure.

 
 

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Cover to “Dark Horse Comics” #5, Dave Dorman, 1992

Dark Horse Comics.

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“If We Must Die,” by Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

 

Mackey

Check out “In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight!”

I just learned about a hell of an interesting horror anthology coming down the pike — “In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight.”  The tome will be published on May 6th by Corpus Press, but you can pre-order the Kindle edition right here.

It looks like a great book with a diverse variety of modern horror tales.  (Read the synopsis on Amazon.)  As it happens, one of its featured authors is the daughter of a friend of mine. (This is Espi Kvlt, author of “Pulsate.”)  It also includes a story by Josh Malerman, who wrote “Bird Box,” the novel upon which Netflix’ hugely successful film adaptation was based.

And it’s only $3.99!

 

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Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers