When I was small there was a record I loved. A collection of creepy poems read aloud in creepy voices. I have thought of it often but never expected to hear it again. I did this April. I guess just about everything is on the internet now. I have intense memories of these poems and the sensation of hearing them again is hard to describe. They terrified me as a child and I could not get enough. Now when I hear them I see the old record player, the worn carpet and the dusty, dappled light in the front room of the shady little house. It stirs up all my ghosts.
If you’d like to hear it’s all there, on youtube. My favorites are The Erlking and Dust. I still love the recording and I wish more of the world could be delivered to me in rhythmically crackling record with old-timey voice format.
Happy Halloween and in honor of the spooky day a creepy retrospective.
“A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings’ – T.S.Eliot
Thank you for sharing the Earl King . . . This was new to me and wonderful to listen to. Your crows are beautiful.
Your owls make me smile and chuckle. I love them so.
Beautiful. Thanks so much.
The spiders, and the poem, are quite wonderfully creepy.
I used to read “Little Orphant Annie” (James Whitcomb Riley) to my younger brothers and sister – it was scary to us way back then.
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/little-orphant-annie
Thanks for making me aware of that old record! We’d have loved that, too.
Fabulously goth, with your own unique touches! Adore the owls especially!
Ann,
Such beautiful work, as usual. The creepy poetry is just right.
Your blog never disappoints, and thank you for the newsletter. I save it to read last on the day it lands in my email.
XOXO
Tricia
I still have that book. But the recording is long gone. It was a Schoolastic purchase from grade school. My favorite was Dust. I still have it memorized!