An Eldritch Day

"Poets work at the molecular level of language. Our fundamental physics is the interaction of sound clusters, phonemes, consonants, vowels, glides, particles, and syllables. Words and phrases certainly matter, but our truest tools are the purest sounds."
~ Steven Withrow

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Glad you're here.

The works I'm sharing today are by Rhode Island poet, storyteller, teacher, and author Steven Withrow. He's at home with serious themes, humor, puzzles, puns, tongue-twisters -- any means of telling a tale...

Noctilucent Clouds Over Sweden, Credit: P-M Hedén
NOMENCLATURE
By Steven Withrow

Night clouds hold no proper names.
Each and all, in their operatic crossings,
Altostratocirrocumulonimbus.
Also bear cubs, pearl beads, nesting dolls,
Arias of open vowels, steam engines,
Strange fish scaled with flashes of camphor,
Nacreous, anonymous, noctilucent
Under the yellow music of the moon.

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THE WITCH’S ITCHES
By Steven Withrow

An itchy witch, she never scratches,
Never scratches, never scratches,
The gnashiest of witchy rashes,
Witchy rashes, witchy rashes...
She pitches, twitches on her broom,
Upon her broom, up on her broom,
And howls unhitched her yowls of gloom,
Growls of doom to eldritch moon...
She’d gladly ditch her earthly riches,
Earthly riches, earthly riches,
Or switch her fate with sniveling snitches,
Sniveling snitches in stitchy britches,
To still that itch she never scratches,
Never scratches, never scratches,
That itch which glitches witch’s niches,
And de-mo-LISH-es witch’s wishes!

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Also, take a look at Steven's Rhyming without a license, Letter from Fox, and his first e-poetry collection, Crackles of Speech. And here's an in-depth interview with Steven at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

* "Eldritch" (in Steven's second poem and in the post title) means "strange, unearthly, spooky."

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Here's our Poetry Friday round-up:

The Write Sisters share a poem by Izumi Shikibu as they grieve the loss of Sally's daughter, Kathryn.

The Iris Chronicles brings us In The High Country by David St. John.

Mandy shares a post about her grandmother, the poet.

Amy LV has a poem about a lesser-noticed kind of recycling.

Father Goose's blog is featuring a tribute to Billie Holiday.

Gathering Books contributes Tita Lacambra Ayala’s Road Map Series.

Mary Lee has Emily Dickinson and daisies for us today.

Rasco from RIF offers Laughing Corn by Carl Sandburg.

Pentimento brings us W.S. Merwin's 227 Waverly Place.

Charlotte's Library shares The Space Child's Mother Goose.

Laura has two offerings for us today: Sylvia Vardell's video clips from ALA Poetry Blast and 15 Words or Less Poems. She invites everybody to come play.

Diane Mayr's contributions for the week: at Random Noodling she has some poetry prompts and an original poem.

Kurious Kitty looks at a poetry series for teens called "Poetry Rocks." The Kurious K's Kwotes' P.F. quote is by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Kids of the Homefront Army continues with "Scrap Metal."

Robyn Hood Black is celebrating unusual animals with a poem by Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman.

Irene shares a hummingbird poem by Pablo Neruda.

At Wild Rose Reader, Elaine has a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye titled "What Is Supposed to Happen," a video of the song "Baby Face," and a pre-birth picture of the face of her first grandchild.

Mother Reader gives us Jottings of New York: A Descriptive Poem by Knight of the White Elephant of Burmah William McGonagall.

MsMac's PF entry is a Robert Louis Stevenson poem on summer.

Tara is making a joyful noise about fireflies.

Shelley brings us more poems about the old days with her Rain: A Dust Bowl Story

Write Time reminds us that it's never too late to live your dream.

Karen E is in with Richard Wilbur's "Mind."

There is No Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town brings us Consolation by Billy Collins.

Paper Tigers offers Shel Silverstein's No Difference.

Susan Taylor Brown shares How To Listen.

On A Year of Literacy Coaching, there's Lee Bennett Hopkins' Bedtime.

Janet Squires looks at At the Sea Floor Cafe: odd ocean critter poems, written by Leslie Bulion and illustrated by Leslie Evans.

Thanks for coming!