October-The Month of Contradictions

           

                It’s Poetry Friday, the Friday before Halloween, so come along with your gathering of spooky words, if you so wish, or peaceful words that may calm us before the day. 

               It snowed here in the past 48 hours, and if you saw my last post you would have seen Autumn beauty, but alas, the snow has taken it away, hence my title.

           Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley is a favorite poem at this spooky time of year, when such words as when the blaze is blue/An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo! gives me shivers, and I love that they do.  It also brings good memories, of a grandfather who read old classics to me because that is what he loved.  I have shared this poem many times to my classes in the past, and it has inspired their charcoal sketches of what they saw in their mind’s eye. 

             You can hear the poem read here at the Riley Children’s Foundation, presented by a man named Hal Rayle, an American voice actor.

             This is the sweet introduction by Riley to the poem:

               To all the little children: -- The happy ones; and sad ones;

               The sober and the silent ones; the boisterous and glad ones;

               The good ones -- Yes, the good ones, too; and all the lovely bad ones.

And you can find the poem’s text here, with this beginning: 

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,

An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,

Happy Halloween to you all!

                    From ghoulies and ghosties
 and long-leggedy beasties 
and things that go bump in the night.  Good Lord, deliver us!
~Scottish Saying


Please leave your links in the comments and I will gather throughout the day.  

Early birds (or bats if you prefer):

*Steven Withrow has an original poem "Wood Thrush" at Crackles of Speech.

*Robin Hood Black ponders generations past and present with some original "robin's egg blue haiku". 

*Matt Forrest Esenwine gives us two poems for the price of one this week at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.

*Myra Garces-Bacsal shares Laura Purdie Salas' wonderful anthology Bookspeak at Gathering Books.

*Violet Nesdoly is planning to be very busy in the next month because she's planning for NaNoWriMo and the November Poem A Day Chapbook challenges by sharing "The Alchemy of Poetry".  

And the morning treats:

*Lorie Ann Grover shares an original haiku at On Point, titled September  October

*Vikram Madan is trying to take a little nap at 1000 Poems.

*You can find poetry gifts for teens (and others) from Tabatha Yeatts.

*Andi Sibley at A Wrung Sponge gives us perhaps the last of the possible Autumn photos (with the storm on its way) and an original haiku.  

*Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at A Poem Farm writes it's still Indian summer at her farm, and shares a free verse poem about a dancing girl named Fall.

*Renee LaTulippe at No Water River has another wonderful video of poetry performance tips, Doing Poetry Right and then there's her marvelous celebration of the Poetry Friday Anthology she calls Poet-A-Palooza with even more wonderful videos of some of the poets reading their poems.

*Laura Shovan, Author Amok, shares the poem "I Love Rap" from Tony Medina's DESHAWN DAYS.  Check out her comment about the fan mail DeShawn receives.

*Ruth is staying dry inside because of the relentless rain they are experiencing in Haiti from Hurricane Sandy.  She shares a poem about siblings at There Is No Such Thing As A Godforsaken Town.  She says it's a 'hurricane' poem.  Hm-m.

*At  A Teaching Life, Tara adds some more Halloween poems.  She too is preparing for the predicted storm in the east.

*Liz Steinglass shares an original poem-"The Cat And The Chipmunk".  

*At 100 Scope Notes, Travis Jonker gives us a review of the anthology, Make Magic Do Good.

*Laura Purdie Salas shares a poem by Diana Randolph called "Free Admission Day, September - Copper Falls STate Park." She says it's from Diana's collection of poems and paintings called BEACONS OF THE EARTH AND SKY.  And don't forget to visit 15 Words or less too!

*Always delighting with foodie memories, Jama Rattigan at the Alphabet Soup shares a poem by Penny Harter about a vintage whisk.  

*A scary original poem is offered by Iza Trapani at In and Out of My Studio titled A Monster In My Room.  

*Diane Mayr adds more about the Dodge Poetry Festival at Random Noodling. And KK's Kwotes has a quote by John Barton.  Plus, Diane says the Write Sisters has a poem called "Lace" by Eavan Boland.

*Sally Thomas gives us numerous poems for listening at Castle In The Sea.

*Linda Kulp answers the question, What makes a house a home? with a poem at Write Time.

*Heidi Mordhorst is in today at My Juicy Little Universe with a poem she shared with eighth graders about NYC.

*Betsy, at Teaching Young Writers has a 'leafy' poem, still no snow at her house, only drips.

*Dori, at Dori Reads says no snow down south, and shares a bicycle poem.

*David Harrison gives us two posts today.  One concerns a poem about his lost cat, Corky, and the other is from his Sunday Poems post, with a poem by Jeanne Poland and one original from David.  

*Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading reminds us that it's less than two weeks till election day!  And she shares a review of Janet S. Wong's thoughtful Declaration of Interdependence.

*Sylvia Vardell at Poetry for Children shares some of her helpful poetry "text sets", this time for middle school readers.

*Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong are sharing a weather poem for the Poetry Friday Anthology post today.      

Sorry to be later for some of you:  It's time for lunchtime goodies here!

Carol Wilcox at Carol's Corner is one of the Cybil's poetry panelists, and is sharing a review from the top of her stack of anthologies,  FREEDOM'S A-CALLIN ME by Ntozake Shange.  It tells the story of a runaway slave traveling north.  

Ben Curran at The Small Nouns shares a poem by Galway Kinnell and writes about his favorite anthology, Good Poems for Hard Times.

At Booktalking, Anastasia Suen is sharing Just Say Boo! by Susan Hood and Jed Henry.

At Bildungsroman you'll find two sonnets from Shakespeare here and here!


Janet Squires shares "Bees, snails, & peacock tails: patterns & shapes--naturally" written by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Steve Jenkins.  Find her at All About The Books With Janet Squires.

April Halprin Wayland gives us two poems today from her wonderful book GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING.

Charles Ghigna says Come go "Write Walking" with us at The FATHER GOOSE Blog

It's good to have this happen in the daylight!  Mary Ann Scheur wants to tell us about J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen and their marvelous   Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs.

Amy at Mrs. Merrill's Book Break gives us an idea for a prop for Jack Prelutsky's Skeleton Parade.

Joy Acey says she has company but still wants to share a little Halloween poem.  You can find it here.
  
final howlings!

Donna at Mainely Write has been busy with the goblins all night, and adds her poem this morning.  Be sure to take a look at what she thinks of October!  And-it's her birthday, so go wish her many happy returns of her day!