Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jone Rush MacCulloch for Roundup.
Happy Halloween! Today I am traveling to Highlights for the Poetry Palooza!. Yay! I'm also joining others in our community (Matt! Heidi!) in celebration of a Blogiversary: 20 years!!
This is post number 2,346!
Newsletter subscribers already know this, but I wanted to be sure and share it here as well: To add to the fun, I'm hosting a book giveaway of a few of my favorite 2025 reads.
I’m offering ONE (US only) winner a book bundle: James by Percival Everett (adult); Knocking on Windows by Jeannine Atkins (YA). The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (MG). Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan (PB); and a fresh-in-my-mailbox F&G of For the Win: Poems Celebrating Phenomenal Athletes selected by Irene Latham & Charles Waters (POETRY)!
Even if you don't win, you'll get a subscription to my monthly e-mail newsletter. Good luck, and happy reading!!
This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features a piece I've been saving for this very day! I mean, what better than a skull poem for Halloween? Though this one did take an unexpected turn at the end! Learn more about calavera (skull poems) here. Thanks so much for reading.
by Irene Latham
stubborn bone—
once a box for a brain,
once encased by skin—
empty now,
hollow
you glow–
a skull is a skull is a skull
no different
no less dead
o, determined cottage
shall I fill your windows with fruit?
perhaps you will be
the one to outlast
the internet
Wishing you more Oct 31, hiliarious hijinks than you've already creatively provided here, with the Mama Lisa Calavera link & your crafty Calavera poem. I'm intrigued by your idea of flowers planted within the box that once was cottage to the brain. Your poem neurons are the best, Irene. Also, any time at Highlights is Hi Fun fo Everyone. Halloween Hugs to All, there! Jan/Bookseedstudio
ReplyDelete"determined cottage"!!!! I love this!
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, the Calavera poem is great, Irene. It offers a wonderfully different way of seeing something familiar.
ReplyDeleteooooooh, a new form that fits today ever so perfectly. I too like the "determined cottage." It's the question that gets me, "Shall I fill your windows with fruit? It can mean several things. I like it!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love ALL of this! Didn't know about the tradition of calavera poems, but I'm partial to some great sugar skull art, etc. Perfect for today, thanks. Congrats on continued kudos for your wonderful work, and -- have FUN at Highlights! Happy 20 years blogging, too - woo hoooooo! Glad to have been around a few blocks with you in these decades. :0) xo
ReplyDeleteHappy blogging for 20 years - wow, Irene. You've given me a boost for quite a few of them, and now your "Calavera" poem, a new way to imagine, perhaps even to celebrate? Have fun at Highlights!
ReplyDelete