Poetry Friday: Poppies by Sandra McPherson

Yes, that's me, the orange crayon in the box.

 (I wish I could find the rest of the pictures

 of my colorful cohorts that Halloween.)

I love orange. Not so much traffic cone orange, but golden orange, the color of autumn trees after a heavy rain, when the leaves radiate like inextinguishable flames. I didn't know quite why I loved this color so much until I read the opening line of Poppies, by Sandra McPherson. The progression of imagery in the poem trails into sadness, which is difficult. I wanted more blazing. Sigh.

Poppies
by Sandra McPherson

Orange is the single-hearted color. I remember
How I found them in a vein beside the railroad,
A bumble-bee fumbling for a foothold
While the poppies' petals flagged beneath his boot.

I brought three poppies home and two buds still sheathed.
I amputated them above the root. They lived on artlessly
Beside the window for a while, blazing orange, bearing me
No malice. Each four-fanned surface opened

To the light. They were bright as any orange grove.
I watched them day and night stretch open and tuck shut

Read the rest here.

P.S. Don't miss Poets.org's take on Halloween, including their Poetry Haunted House.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Toby at The Writer's Armchair

Poetry Friday: J. Patrick Lewis

If you want treats on Halloween, you usually have to go door to door and scare some up yourself. But this week, I had a treat come to me. J. Patrick Lewis contacted me, asking if I'd like something Halloweenish to post today. Maybe he knew that I like licorice and might like "black ice scream" too?


Whatever Happened to Oliver Tooke?


The plump-kins went on frowning,
The night was filled with gloom,
The witch rechecked her witch watch—
A minute half past doom—
As down the street came innocence,
Disguised as Captain Hook.
His name was Oliver Uriah Roy (O.U.R.)
Tooke.

The witch was serving black ice scream.
She offered him a spoon.
When Captain Hook-Tooke took it,
He would swear he heard this tune:

I’ve lollipops
For Ollie-mops—
O.U.R. such a pest!—
And poison pills
To give you chills.
Let goblins sort the rest.

The night went black and blacker still
Than midnight in a can.
The witch who took young Captain Hook
Preferred a Peter Pan.

“Ya takes the dainties what’s as comes,”
Declares the Witches’ Oath.
“But Captain Hook and Peter Pan?
I’d roast the beggars both!”

I’ve lollipops
For Ollie-mops—
O.U.R. such a pest!—
And poison pills
To give you chills.
Let goblins sort the rest.

She whisked him through the curtain fog
Upon a jiggery rake,
And where they flew nobody knew,
But, mates, make no mistake:
O.U.R. Tooke’s been taken,
For upon the neighborhood
The horrifying echo fell,

“O.U.R.—gone for good!”

I’ve lollipops
For Ollie-mops—
O.U.R. such a pest!—
And poison pills
To give you chills.
Let goblins sort the rest.

----- by J. Patrick Lewis


Poetry Friday is (g)hosted today by Poetry for Children.

Now that's creepy...

Ghosts of Halloweens past:

My husband and I as hippies. Not too scary.
(He's more convincing than I am.)


As Antony and Cleopatra
(Again, not scary, except for the snake
and whatever is on my feet.)

I was going to post more, but I'm terrified of this:

Blogger Play

Don't click on that link unless you want to see
a slide show of EVERY PICTURE that has been
recently uploaded to Blogger---and here's the scary part---
without the blogger explicitly asking them to do it.

Does anyone else find this disturbing? Creepy? Yes, I'll admit, it's cool. But I could see it turning into one endless advertisement, when some entrepreneur figures out all they have to do is continually upload images of their products to have them beamed all over the world in real time. Or what if someone has a picture of you or your kids that you don't want broadcast throughout cyberspace? Scary. I smell a lawsuit soon.

And then there's me, who's perfectly willing to upload a frightening picture of me and my husband as Sonny and Cher, but not if I know people in Nairobi will be laughing at it.

Oh well, we ARE in disguise.

I've got you, babe...