Three Poems (for Halloween)

Hello friends,

Happy Halloween!

To mark the occasion, here are three poems from the “Creature Features” section of my new book, THE ROBOTS OF BABYLON.

GHOSTS IN THE ATTIC (Anagrammed Lines)

The ghosts in our attic are
actors. I see that our night
is a stage to one rich truth....
          Run so, it’s a gothic theatre —
          hurting, as it echoes to art.

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DRACULA (Palindrome)

Revolts.

Older castle.
Final pass.

A Romanian
Impaler.

Omen of Osiris —
of one more lap.

Mina, in a morass —
a plan.

I felt sacred,
lost lover.

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Last week, I shared three “aelinscapes” — metered poetry in which two or more formal poems share metrical feet. The following aelinscape — a sonnet in anapaestic tetrameter containing a sonnet in iambic monometer — combines this restriction with alliterative verse: the first three “beats” (stressed syllables) in the sonnet’s lines all alliterate with the poem’s title.