SEVEN HALLOWEEN SONGS this year! That’s more songs than trick-or-treaters ringing our original 1978 doorbell—a disappointing turnout. But on the bright side, my Christmas shopping is done! (spoiler alert—it’s leftover Halloween candy)
A MERRY HALLOWE’EN! (as stated on a treasured cat-in-a-pumpkin mug my sister gave me years back!)
It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year! Let us dive into American Halloween circa 1919 with Ruth E. Kelley’s Book of Hallowe’en—-then wallow in the atmosphere of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And for the final goody in our treat bag, we swing back to Ruth Kelley for three poems, ALL titled “Hallowe’en”!! NIFTY. Sit by the fire…roast some apples…chug some candy corn! Here we go!
The Book of Hallowe’en
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-book-of-halloween/
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/the-legend-and-the-reality-of-sleepy-hollow/
https://ex-puritan.ca/blog/washington-irving
Zombies! Another icon of terror as Halloween creeps ever closer! Bubblegum zombies? Well, you’d better get in here and find out!
zombie cucumber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
GTTUPOD Secret Creepy Folder
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guide-to-the-unknown/id1313915711?i=1000704452755
Atlas Obscura
5 Creepy Tales of Real-World Zombies - Atlas Obscura
www.atlasobscura.com/articles/real-life-zombies
Fantods! A feeling of deep unease! Or a little dragon creature from mysterious writer and illustrator of eerie stories, Edward Gorey. I also like to imagine them as wispy ghosts in the woods. Or star creatures. Take your pick. And what is it about their howling that makes it so much more unsettling? Expand your vocabulary of American slang….and dig some pleasing terrors this October!
What Does Fantods Mean? Definition & Examples
www.twominenglish.com/fantods/#:~:text=Mark%20Twain’s%20use%20of%20“fantods”%20is%20very%20famous.,This%20makes%20his%20use%20of%20“fantods”%20stand%20out.
www.thehowlingfantods.com/
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2010/novemberdecember/statement/the-gorey-details
https://literature.fandom.com/wiki/A_Neighbor%27s_Landmark
Halloween draws ever closer! Got the morbs yet? The what? That’s a Victorian slang phrase meaning “to sit under a cloud of despondency.” But for our purposes, we’ll dwell on the definition of “morbid” pertaining to an unusual interest in disturbing and unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease. Come along and visit some creepy, morbid sites around the globe! Then relax for some morbid poetry in the public domain this exquisite, haunted October!
This episode was roundly inspired by my archivist/childhood best friend Tammy Williams—who made me an embroidery of the marvelous phrase GOT THE MORBS. for Christmas last year!! Hear her in episode 76, “If Your Pajamas Could Talk”—oh, we did have fun!
https://www.buzzfeed.com/angelicaamartinez/dark-facts-i-learned-2024
https://www.atlasobscura.com/users/crazyfreak1989/lists/morbid-curiosities
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-hardy-tree-london-england
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jeweled-skeletons-of-the-furstenfeld-abbey
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705578/morbidly-curious-by-coltan-scrivner-phd/9780143137344/?ref=PRH61B68A24621A&aid=21938&linkid=PRH61B68A24621A&gad_campaignid=23096680980&wbraid=ClMKCAjw0sfHBhBgEkMAFTW3V9181DStm3HexfioVj44DwbD1cUWyaft9PLavSXsTncPbXhYuAlqs6BSBjWJlwGan4_PpNzfDe_WSAr5QJ1XGgJygQ
https://www.boredpanda.com/morbid-facts/
https://www.morbid-poetry.com/
Candy Corn, oh dearest October paramour….
Some love it! Some hate it! But candy corn makes her dazzling appearance every autumn on display endcaps of food stores far and wide. Look, I’m a songwriter, not an internet troll. So when the anonymous despisers of the ’corn come out and disparage her good name, I do not respond in kind. Instead, I bestow a love song upon the world. Showers of harvest corn blessings to you! May your candy corn have a fluffy mouthfeel. And Happy Upcoming Hallowe’en!!
Candy Corn facts from USA Today!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/10/26/halloween-fave-10-spookily-sweet-candy-corn-facts/92767432/#:~:text=1%3A%20Candy%20corn%20was%20invented,run%20by%20an%20existing%20manufacturer.
Candy Corn Factory!
https://youtu.be/DgTvgQfcllM?si=26ZE27dJg528b2bm
Chocolate Halloween Bat Filled with Candy Corn
https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/breakable-milk-chocolate-halloween-bat-filled-with-candy-corn-set-of-2/product/93736
It’s that time of year again—the darkness is coming! Get ready for the spooky and the horrible as we dive into Mylingar, “the murdered ones,” that is, the spirits of children “put away” by their parents long ago in cold, difficult climates. One might encounter such an entity in a Time-Life Enchanted World book, or on a Year Walk, a Scandinavian Vision Quest of old—or in the game “Year Walk,” which is properly terrifying. Wowie. Light the candles, brew the tea, and turn on the Hygge for THIS one. It gets real.
Also, why doesn’t the solitary artist just count up her pizza boxes if the numbers fail her?
#purpleharpbluelipstick
ARRIVE. DEVASTATE. VANISH.
https://minutewax.bandcamp.com/album/arrive-devastate-vanish
Year Walk and Year Walk Companion
https://simogo.com/2012/10/05/the-strange-phenomena-of-year-walking/#:~:text=Its%20purpose%20was%20to%20see,day%20inside%20a%20dark%20room
https://simogo.fandom.com/wiki/Year_Walk_Companion
Mylingar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85rsg%C3%A5ng
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsEayCRVnXE
Hey, take a powder! Don’t blow your wig! Or do—welcome to the wig closet, your favorite place to hide out when the hostility of life gets out of hand. Or, a nice little nook for powdering your elaborate wig, if you happen to be a fashionable citizen of the 18th-century. Grab your bear grease and your purple cornstarch and get ready to poof!!!
Ghost Story Song!
https://minutewax.bandcamp.com/album/the-voices-in-the-notes-a-ghost-story
Wig Closet
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3395087#:~:text=Wigs%20were%20stored%20and%20powdered,of%20lavender%20or%20flower%20water.
More Wig Closet
http://blog.raucousroyals.com/2009/12/off-to-powder-room18th-century-style.html?m=1
Happy September birthdays! This one goes out to my angel of a husband—and to my lonely inner poet—and to those buried under gravestones inscribed with their signature recipes! You heard me. Happy birthday to ALL of us!!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gravestone-recipes
https://thisismold.com/profile/recipes-from-the-afterlife-with-ghostly-archives
Transfusion Poetica by Amy Zoellers—home of “If You Were Someone Else”
https://a.co/d/bJ98QnS
Yep, haunted pants—what a wonderful world! Toast your marshmallows to new ditty about the mysterious “walking pajamas” of Fresno, California, et al: the Fresno Nightcrawler. Real? Fake? Certainly bizarre, and caught on camera! Dare we venture into the outdoors after dark? That all depends—upon whether you find these pants adorable or terrifying!
The Fresno Nightcrawler, The Cryptid That Resembles A Pair Of Pants : www.allthatsinteresting.com/fresno-nightcrawler
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article219755195.html
https://www.ranker.com/list/fresno-nightcrawler-facts/laura-allan
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article293048864.html
https://thebusinessjournal.com/more-than-fresno-famous-how-the-nightcrawler-captured-the-worlds-imagination/
www.cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Fresno_Nightcrawler
www.grunge.com/211192/the-legend-of-the-fresno-nightcrawlers-explained/
Octopus boot? But yes, for a little tiny broken foot bone! What a fuss. Let’s dive into the basement stairs! The booting and crutching! Hey, I’ve been reading Anais Nin’s diaries—let’s voyeur into that. And the real cure for the metatarsal blues? Well, a blues song! But also: A Nightmare on Elm Street (the Johnny Depp one).
Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street
https://youtu.be/Q-bpbsz9BHw?si=oLsQvph9rmVGOrDp
The Diary of Anais Nin
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=32232226018&dest=usa&ref_=ps_ggl_18382194370&cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade0to10-_-product_id=COM9780156260251USED-_-keyword=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17190383930&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyIPDBhDBARIsAHJyyVja4H-PH-cbcfplxU3fhfRXAmIZHryAv0MjZCXFam8AoKsIIIOw_e8aAiZgEALw_wcB
Yes, weird tumors, in song! A whole extra lifetime has passed since those little weirdies encircled my inside parts—that’s a blessin’! Get the story here, and how about a little callback to episode 75, “AI Art Song”? My skeleton foot, wearing flesh for a sock…🎵 Have you ever seen your skeleton foot in an x-ray? Sexay!!
Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics — Miriam Engleberg
https://a.co/d/czxtjTO
27 Kinds of Loneliness— McAnally / Vorwark
https://a.co/d/7FMzFsU
The Poet’s Bowl — Amy McAnally
https://a.co/d/gYRIbhN
What’s the least scary way to weather a tornado scare? Podcast right on through it! That wasn’t the plan, of course, when recording began. No, the rainy day seemed a golden opportunity to wallow in spooky stories — yes! And then the sirens wailed….
27 Kinds of Loneliness
https://a.co/d/7TALHCH
The Poet’s Bowl
https://a.co/d/eqakFGy
Cryptid Campfire (songs)
https://minutewax.bandcamp.com/album/cryptid-campfire
Happy Anniversary to my sweet gumdrop! I’m wearing your slippers right now—can you hear the magic? For the occasion, I’m dragging two old favorites out of the mothballs: “Death in the Afternoon” and “Hungarian Puzzle Box”—a little comparison of life before and after it got beautiful. Thank you for celebrating with!
National Poetry Month 2025 lends us its shimmer for just a few days more! So let’s investigate Slam Poetry—what is it? For years I never knew! Let’s find out what it is and what it ain’t, and let us all agree that “So I Married an Axe Murderer” provides the ultimate example of an exaggerated beatnik-style poetry performance cinema has to offer. And remember, be a Mensch!
Slam poetry | Definition, Guidelines, & History | Britannica
www.britannica.com/art/slam-poetry
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam
4 Misconceptions about Slam Poetry (and what it actually is) | BYU English Society
http://www.englishsociety.byu.edu/?p=526
https://youtu.be/BuD94WnuxjU?si=_inS1-oDepe18RLd
Author Links
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=amy+zoellers+mcanally&crid=3MD95475IUC8I&sprefix=amy+zoellers+mcanally%2Caps%2C69&ref=nb_sb_noss
https://www.amazon.com/author/amyzoellers
Poetry Freaks! It’s National Poetry Month 2025! Let us toast the occasion with poem-to-song “Drunken Tercets,” a string-of-pearls poem filled with lines from moon poems by favorite poets, and a reading of my handmade chapbook MOON-DEVOURED from cover to cover! You can find Moon-Devoured in “A Howling Breakfast of Moon Soda—4 Chapbooks in One!” by Amy Zoellers (McAnally), link below! And don’t forget to check out my sister-podcast, POETRY FREAKS as we jam ourselves with poetica all April long!
A Howling Breakfast of Moon Soda https://a.co/d/8BTcy1j
https://www.fromwhisperstoroars.com/poems-about-the-
moon/
https://poets.org/poems-about-moon
Poetry and the Moon | Academy of American Poets
www.bing.com/search?q=poetry+and+the+moon&form=ANNTH1&refig=74de17a1fb344452880925f3cda7be91&pc=U531
The food of poets! We splash again into National Poetry with a feast of poets praising food, fearing the distraction of baking, collecting poets’ recipes, and writing a grace at the age of six! It’s a feast!
Is the peacock the keeper of secrets? Would you let them pull your chariot? Get a little surreal — and discover oodles about this strutting bird with plumage of a thousand eyes. Would you tell the peacock your secrets?
The Peacock by Christine Jackson
https://www.amazon.com/Peacock-Animal-Christine-Jackson/dp/1861892934
The Peacock in Myth, Legend, and 19th Century History ~ Mimi Matthews
www.mimimatthews.com/2016/05/13/the-peacock-in-myth-legend-and-19th-century-history/
Flappers! Those party gals of a century ago—unflappable! Until stricken with the universal thump of human grief. Diphtheria funerals—elevator mishaps—and the terrible death of a moonstruck poet……….
https://www.instagram.com/hipness_and_outrage?igsh=MTZ1b2phZmRva3pyag%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
https://www.instagram.com/podcast.in.a.minor?igsh=MWMzNHZicGN3aW9yYw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
https://www.amazon.com/Ordeal-French-Lipstick-Amy-Zoellers/dp/1737208350
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/final-exits-michael-largo?variant=32123000586274
http://www.joshuamzeitz.com/flapper
Elevator Accidents Are More Common Thank You Think - Blog www.foryourrights.com/blog/elevator-accidents-are-more-common-than-you-think/
The February curse is upon us with another love song, so eat your celery to counteract the sugar hit! Meanwhile, let’s hang out with Pablo Neruda—and Jan Neruda! A peep at Pablo Picasso’s thigh poem, among other romantic surrealism! This is one hot bath loaded with rose petals….
Literary Analysis: Exploring the Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Author Pablo Neruda
www.literarysum.com/pablo-neruda-a-literary-analysis-of-his-poetry/#the-influence-of-surrealism-and-magical-realism-on-nerudas-poetry
