Poetry Friday Roundup: enter if you dare!

Attached at the brain. The Barnes family pumpkin, courtesy of Miranda

I've been waiting a long time for this day to arrive...

Welcome to the Poetry Friday Parlor of Horrors!

Those who know me, know that I have a bit of a dark side... especially when it comes to limericks.  Cases in point: Bridget, Sinclaire, and last year's Halloween zombie encounter.

Grab a cup of Joe and stay a while!

Okay, so maybe that's a bit more more than just a bit.

Most of the time I successfully keep that dark side, my "inner creature,"  under wraps. But when Halloween comes around, all bets are off.

While I'm sorry to say I do not have a limerick to share with you today, with a little help from a friend, I do have a HalloZEEN-O!


THOUGHTLESS

My dear, I'm rotten to the core.
How repulsive 
could I 
be?
Forgive my brain-
eating 
spree...
though yours tasted 
heaven-
ly.

© 2014 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.


By now you've probably heard that J. Patrick Lewis challenged us to write a zeno this month.  This week I featured ditties by Jan Gars, Margaret Simon, Laura Purdie Salas, and Gayle Krause.  But did you know that today's zeno satisfied another challenge as well?

David Harrison is celebrating five (count 'em: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!) years of his Word of the Month ("W.O.M.") poetry challenges.  This month he's looking for 100 (no counting required) poets to share work inspired by the word "spree."  I dare you to leave a ditty on David's blog!  Adult W.O.M. poems may be shared HERE. Young poets may post their W.O.M. poems HERE.

And speaking of leaving a ditty, let's get to the Poetry Friday roundup, shall we?

Oops!  Sorry, there's a catch.

Some time ago, Tabatha Yeatts fed my hungry inner creature with a set of horror themed refrigerator poetry magnets.  I have been dying to use them (ha! dying... get it?) and what better way than a Poetry Friday Five for Friday?

I've chosen 15 words from the magnet set:

Choose one or more of the words above (a form of the word is also okay– for example, "possessed" instead of "possess") and leave your five-word, horror-inspired ditty in the comments, along with your Poetry Friday link and a short description.

Before you curse me for such an onerous task, yes, this is optional.  You may:

1. come up with 5-word ditty on the spot (please don't stress over it),
2. leave your link now and come back to add your 5-word ditty later,
3. choose not to participate in the Five for Friday at all, or
4. participate in the Five for Friday without a link.  

I will get you... er... love you, my pretties, all the same.

Here's mine, to start us off:

1. From Michelle at Today's Little Ditty:

rotting flesh:

stench of madness

2. From Laura at Author Amok:

Nightmare's tentacles
devour my day

It's my second post on a new poetic form called the Golden Shovel, featuring original poems by Linda Baie, Michelle H. Barnes (our hostess!), and my Golden Shovel based on "The Red Wheelbarrow."

3. From Jama at Alphabet Soup:

Devour moaning tentacles:
fresh sushi

At Alphabet Soup, a mini celebration of Claude Monet (poem + his favorite madeleines au citron).

4. From Robyn Hood Black:

ditties
splatter
across the page

I'm in travel mode today (i.e., didn't have act together for PF), but I hope to get out the broom later and visit more posts!

5. From Penny at a penny and her jots:

Shivers!
 

Bloodcurdling beast,
chilling, moaning
nightmare! 

I have Episode 4 of A GREAT Nephew & A GREAT Aunt over at my blog.

6. From Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme: 

Corpse-beast rotting,
nightmare chilling.

I see we both have zenos AND Halloween on the mind! I have a new poem posted at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme. 

 7. From Bridget (who is glad there is not a limerick about Bridget again this year) 
      at wee words for wee ones:

bloodcurdling moan
devour rotting beast

It seems food is never too far from my mind or my poetry. My offering for PF is for those poor souls who must avoid dairy.

8. From Carmela at Teaching Authors: 

Bloodcurdling beasts
possess my dreams.

I'll also work on something for David Harrison's Word of the Month challenge, since he was kind enough to allow me to share his poem, "cicada ghosts" in my PF post. I'm also celebrating the publication of my article "Writing for Boys (and other 'Reluctant Readers')" in the 2015 CHILDREN'S WRITER'S AND ILLUSTRATOR'S MARKET with a giveaway of the book. So I hope everyone will stop by to enter our drawing!

9. From Diane at Random Noodling and Kurious Kitty:

Dust to Dust...

And in between
putrefying rot.

At Random Noodling I have a summary of my visit last weekend to Salem, MA.  Kurious Kitty has a poem by Richard Eberhart.

10. From Joy at Poetry for Kids Joy:

Blood-curdling scream
cemetery at midnight

Joy has another zombie zeno!

11. From Crystal at Reading Through Life:

My Poetry Friday post is all about construction. Our bodies feel the rumbles of the equipment as we teach and learn each day so the feeling of change is seeping into our bones. The renovation of our school is kind of taking over my mind.

12. From Tara at A Teaching Life:

 My contribution is inspired by an old bike I saw tossed by the street.

13. From Iphigene at Gathering Books:

We aren't in Halloween mode yet at Gathering Books, but our offering for today's Poetry Friday is "The Moon Stares" by Neal Imperial.

14. From Carol at Beyond Literacy Link:

My five-word piece is embedded in a meme that was an original photo turned into a graphic design via PicMonkey. My original poem was inspired by a photo taken at the beach at night giving a totally different feeling to my summer serenity scenes. I want you to see the full effect of the five-word ditty as it sits on the page so thank you in advance for taking a stroll over to my blog.

15. From Julie at The Drift Record:

Getting Up from the Sofa on Halloween to Pass Out Candy to Trick-or-Treaters

Muscles groaaannning,
Old bones mooooaannning.

 My Poetry Friday offering is Alastair Reid on kids and counting rhymes.

16. From Catherine at Reading to the Core:

Frankenstein revives
rotting corpse.
Nightmare!

I've been reading Frankenstein, so I'm sharing "Mutability" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

17. From Carol at Carol's Corner:

My Poetry Friday entry is a review of FRIDA, a biography of artist Frida Kahlo, told through poetry.

18. From Margaret at Reflections on the Teche:

Bloodcurdling splatter
Nightmare's the matter.

My students are loving the zeno form and are choosing it freely. Today I have poems about starling murmurations with two zeno poem movies.

19. From Laura Purdie Salas:

A Cannibal's Menu

One corpse, chilled (just-killed)

I'm in with a poetryaction poem on my site today, inspired by a character in The Tree House That Jack Built, by Bonnie Verburg.

20. From Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference:

Escape from the Zombie Aquarium:
 

Rotting tentacles
can't hold me

Hooray! Tabatha has another zeno: "Ode to Lucy's Ears."

21. From Irene at Live Your Poem...:

I've got a beautiful kind of darkness in Lilian Moore's poem "Letter to a Friend."

22. From Mary Lee at A Year of Reading:

...in which I'm thrilled to receive some validation for my bad housekeeping.

Octopus Bike Ride

Halfway uphill:
tentacles moan.

23. From Karen Edmisten:

Moan.
Chilling nightmare:
No coffee. 

I'm in with Louis Jenkins this week.

24. From Katie at The Logonauts:

Survivable nightmare?
Impromptu, chilling poem

 I am celebrating the poetry of Paul Fleischman over at The Logonauts.

25. From Violet Nesdoly:

My poem today is "October Fashion," wherein:

Autumn's style
survives the chill

26. From Becky at Tapestry of Words:

Forbidden words
Bleed life’s stories

On my blog today, I am sharing a fall poem by Arthur Guiterman and a poem I wrote after a trip to the mountains last weekend.

27. From Sylvia at Poetry for Children:

I'm off-topic with a look at memoirs in poetry.

28. From Doraine at Dori Reads:

I'm a bit off topic, too, with a Georgia poetry project on watersheds.

29. From Renée at No Water River:

What Mama Zombie Says When Zombino Misbehaves

Beast!
Go to your tomb.

Today I have another installment in the NCTE Poets series with Lee Bennett Hopkins, this one featuring the work of Arnold Adoff.

30. From slayground at Bildungsroman:

Simply put:

I was born to survive.

I posted "Good Hours" by Robert Frost at my blog.

31. From Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town:

Day off school: survived nightmare!

We have a day off school today, to celebrate Dessalines Day.  

32. From Amy at The Poem Farm:

Forbidden words.

Forbidden poems.

Chilling.

Over at The Poem Farm, I share a wee kitten poem and the words of a wise young poet, Emily.

33. From Donna at Mainely Write:

I decided to give emaze a try combining my poems and photos of fall in "The Fall of the Leaves of Fall". I was inspired to give it a go by Margaret Simon's work with her students' zenos displayed in emaze.

34. From Buffy Silverman:

No post for me this week, but I'll still ditty:

beast moans,
corpse splatters--
nightmare?

35. From Heidi at my juicy little universe:

beast's tentacles--
devour them deep-fried

I'm here with the second in my Science Series--a classic from Robert Frost.

36. From Ramona at Pleasures from the Page:

Scrambling to meet the midnight deadline - five word ditty is title for blog post: Students Succumb to Poetry's Spell.

37. From Robyn Campbell:

Bloodcurdling beast
hayride gone bad

38. From Charles Waters:

Satanic beasts
possess
forbidden tomb.

The parlor doors are now closed.   
...unless you have come back to leave a 5-word ditty.  Creature LOVES ditties.

Thank you, my beloveds, for your links and the 

delicious morsels of ditty horror!