On Halloween…

The Witches’ Spell

Act IV, Scene 1 from Macbeth (1606) by William Shakespeare

A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 1 WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d. 2 WITCH. Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin’d. 3 WITCH. Harpier cries:—’tis time! ’tis time! 1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go; In the poison’d entrails throw.— Toad, that under cold stone, Days and nights has thirty-one; Swelter’d venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot! ALL. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. ALL. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark; Root of hemlock digg’d i the dark; Liver of blaspheming Jew; Gall of goat, and slips of yew Sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse; Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips; Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-deliver’d by a drab,— Make the gruel thick and slab: Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron, For the ingrediants of our caldron. ALL. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. 2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon’s blood, Then the charm is firm and good.

It’s the birthday of John Keats (1795-1821)

Bright star!  would I were steadfast as thou art –

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

by John Keats (from The Last Sonnet)

It’s the birthday of Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

In a Station of the Metro

by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet black bough.

“A Great Awakening Light”

From “Walking” by Henry David Thoreau

“So we saunter toward the Holy Land, till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done, shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light, as warm and serene and golden as on a bankside in autumn.”

It’s the birthday of Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.

– Quotation by Dylan Thomas

It’s the birthday of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

I am Vertical by Sylvia Plath

But I would rather be horizontal.

I am not a tree with my root in the soil

Sucking up minerals and motherly love

So that each March I may gleam into leaf,

Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed

Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted,

Unknowing I must soon unpetal.

Compared with me, a tree is immortal

And a flower-head not tall, but more startling,

And I want the one’s longevity and the other’s daring.

 

Tonight, in the infinitesimal light of the stars,

The trees and the flowers have been strewing their cool odors.

I walk among them, but none of them are noticing.

Sometimes I think that when I am sleeping

I must most perfectly resemble them–

Thoughts gone dim.

It is more natural to me, lying down.

Then the sky and I are in open conversation,

And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:

Then the trees may touch me for once,

and the flowers have time for me.

New Harmony Sidewalk in Fall

Tuesday Night Reading Series

A fine night at the Poet House in Evansville, Indiana. 

The Third Tuesday Night Poetry reading is hosted by

 Bill Sovern (Larry on accordian).  Tonight’s poets included 

Rusty White Smiddy and

Teresa Roy.

the music of Cameron Hall and Jean Ann Kizer

The unforgettable Shakespeare’s Monkey

Walking Meditation V

   

 

 

 

    

Fairy Rings

 

Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.

~ by William Butler Yeats, “The Land of Heart’s Desire,” 1894