Halloween Poetry, A Melancholy Season, and More Thoughts as We Move Into Darkness

Pumpkin Display with flowers

Halloween and Poetry

My traditional Happy Halloween greeting feels muted this year, as our country grieves the unnecessary and tragic killings in Pittsburgh and Louisville, deals with the true horror of people who dare to stand up publicly to Trump being sent pipe bombs. Many of my friends do not feel safe, and I cannot blame them. All I can do is vote, and encourage you to vote, and send money to anti-bigotry causes across the country, and try to spread love instead of hate.

But I usually post at least one spooky Halloween poem so I’ll post one, “Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales,” from Field Guide to the End of the World. (And for more Halloween-appropriate reading, check out the lunacy issue and moon poems from Escape into Life I posted about in the last week.)

Season of Melancholy, Changing Leaves, and Moving into Darkness

Yes, the darkness has figuratively and literally moved in here in the Seattle area, where it’s dark now at 6:00 PM and after Sunday, ouch, it’ll be dark at 5:00 PM. The news has been relentlessly dark, with the hate crimes leaving my heart feeling especially heavy. We are supposed to be a nation that welcomes immigrants instead of fearing them, and supports its diverse mix of religions, races, heritages, cultures. If you are for those things, and against people seeking to hurt and kill others simply because they are different, please get out and vote before November 6.

November is typically a tough month to find the joy in living in the Pacific Northwest – a time of shortening days, mostly filled with driving rain. But it’s not all melancholy and darkness. Meanwhile, some pictures of local scenes that might cheer you up: some snow geese mixing with the local Canadian geese and their hybrid babies in a Woodinville yard, me in my yard with the maple trees, and me and Glenn in front of some pumpkins.

: Glenn and I with pumpkins

: Me and my yard with the changing leaves

: Snow Geese

: Snow Geese, hybrids

As the world turns towards darkness, I want to keep my eyes on the light. I’ve been writing poems about the end of the world again. Tomorrow I’ll be dressing up as Poe’s “The Raven” and handing out candy to the local kids, maybe playing a few vintage Buffy the Vampire episodes. I will wish you a happy Halloween, as happy as possible, and not to give in to the despair that seems so easy this time of year. We have to work harder to look for reasons to hope, to feel there may be better days ahead, and offer help and support to those who are struggling.

Me with my mom’s beloved 100-year-old copy of the Complete Works of Poe I read as a kid.

Glenn and I dressed for Halloween as Poe’s The Raven and a mad scientist –

As promised, here’s a picture of me dressed as Poe’s “The Raven” and Glenn as a mad scientist…Have a happy Halloween!

Open Books Reading, Halloween-y Poem up at Women’s Voices for Change, Wonder Woman Poetry Videos, and More

Today one of the poems from the new book, “Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales,” is featured on Women’s Voices for Change. It’s a very Halloween-appropriate poem – it was even included in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Six!

Thanks to The University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Review who featured my poem “Wonder Woman Dreams of the Amazon” – from my first book, Becoming the Villainess, as a video they made from one of my readings and images they put together in their first foray into video poems! Here it is. A lot of fun!

So, last night was the Seattle debut of the new book, Field Guide to the End of the World, at Open Books. We did a little reception, a little book signing, a little reading – it was really cool. Thanks to everyone who came out! Here are a few pics that Glenn snapped. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the book during a very difficult year!

: Pre-reading – the sun came out!

: Girls at the Open Books reading!

: Open Books Reading

: book signing

I’m hosting the Twitter #poetparty tonight at 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern to talk spooky and speculative poetry. Come in and join the hashtagging!

Wishing you all a happy and safe Halloween!

Halloween Post: Spooky Poems, Horror Writers

Happy Halloween! It’s official: I’m now a horror writer! I just joined the Horror Writers Association and wrote an essay for their newsletter that was just sent out on the dark side of science poetry!

Appropriate to the season, here are two spoooooky poems.

“Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales” appeared first in Phantom Drift and was selected for The Year’s Best Horror, vol. 6!

Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales

The body is a place of violence. Wolf teeth, amputated hands.
Cover yourself with a cloak of leaves, a coat of a thousand furs,
a paper dress. The dark forest has a code. The witch
sometimes dispenses advice, sometimes eats you for dinner,
sometimes turns your brother to stone.

You will become a canary in a castle, but you’ll learn plenty
of songs. Little girl, watch out for old women and young men.
If you don’t stay in your tower you’re bound for trouble.
This too is code. Your body is the tower you long to escape,

and all the rotted fruit your babies. The bones in the forest
your memories. The little birds bring you berries.
The pebbles on the trail glow ghostly white.

Introduction to Witchcraft first appeared in Atticus Review.

Introduction to Witchcraft

Always these young women in search of power,
their eyes rolled back in their heads, midriffs exposed.
Always some girl with a candle in a dark room –
and poof, her face brightens as she achieves
some moment of bliss. The raindrops around her freeze

in midair, the wolves stop baring their fangs, and for a moment
the young girl marvels at her own invincibility.
But then it’s fire, fire, always someone with a stake or a knife
ready to do her in. She is a spark about to go out.