A Week of Poetry Friends and Readings, Horror Poetry, Halloween/Samhain and Some Real Life Scares

Lesley Wheeler, J.T. Manning and myself at J. Bookwalter’s Poetry Reading

A Week of Poetry Friends and Readings

This week was a riot of activity in my relatively quiet life – my friend Lesley Wheeler, at the end of a massive two-week book tour in the Pacific Northwest. She visited the Hoh Rainforest, did readings in Port Angeles and Bainbridge libraries, and toured the region’s lakes and visited a mushroom conference as a guest of honor. Then did readings in Kirkland and Woodinville. I get tired just thinking about it!

It was good to spend some downtime with Lesley—in between events, we even got to take her to McMurtrey’s pumpkin farm, where we took a tractor tour of the farm, and caught up on life, books, and news. You can watch a bit of the reading, with me reading a few introductory spooky poems and Lesley reading from Mycocosmic and Unbecoming, plus a Q&A. Lesley shines like the professional she is.

Here’s the reading:

Here’s the Q&A session:

The day Lesley left, Kelli Russell Agodon was the featured reader at the Copper Canyon fall fundraiser, so we tried to make it on time (despite massive rainstorms and equally massive traffic)—arrived an hour late at the spooky historical mansion (only accessible by tons of stairs—not so great for the handicapped among us) but it was nice to meet some of the new folks at Copper Canyon and it’s always a pleasure to see Kelli read. Kelli read from Dialogues with Rising Tides and from her upcoming book too.  I also got to see my old friend, poet Elizabeth Austen, which was really fun. Elizabeth helped me a lot when I was a Jack Straw poet and gave me so many good tips about reading on the radio.

Red finches

Horror Poetry, PR for Poets, and Real-Life Scares

Tomorrow I’m recording a tutorial on Horror Poetry for Writer’s Digest and the 30th I’m talking to a class at University of New Orleans about publicity and poetry. Doing the tutorial was an opportunity for me to do more in-depth thinking about what makes a horror poem a horror poem—does Sylvia Plath count? Louise Gluck? Am I a horror poet?

But real life threw in a real scare in the middle of spooky season—my father went into the hospital last night with a serious illness, so we’ve been texting and talking to mom and dad back in Ohio. Hopefully he’s in recovery by Halloween.

Yes, Halloween is Friday, so going about my normal routine (besides the tutorial and the speaking engagement) and decorating, buying candy, etc. This is the time of the “thinning veil”—the time of year when the membrane between the living world and the afterworld becomes more porous, a holiday celebrated long before All Hallow’s Eve, Samhain. Samhain (practiced by my mostly Celtic ancestors) was a time to light fires and much like today’s Day of the Dead (which originated in Mexico and Central America), remember loved ones who had passed and set a table setting for them at feasts.

A storm has blown down a lot of our leaves and branches around town, but here’s a photo of one of our maples before the storm. When the regular news is horrifying, and things in our personal lives are in turmoil, it’s a time to consider the blessings of autumn – how the death of our flowers and our long sunny afternoons just means rebirth in the spring, that this is the time of year to think about the ones we have lost and celebrate the good things we have. Time to rid yourself of bad habits and doubts. I am thankful for the friends I have, the consolations of reading, for my family, my home. I am thankful for you, readers. I hope you light a candle and celebrate this season in a way that brings a new hope (and not just the Star Wars kind). Happy Samhain, Day of the Dead, and Halloween to you all!