121920d

 
Goat-legged piper dance
worn stone altar in the wood
buried in the earth--generations
sacrificed to open the way
the stars wheel
slow dance heavens
bone piper dances
and the old gods die

051620c

guests admiring

uncanny statuary

the Ambassador lifts its veil

051620b

first-gen hybrid

screaming when she sees

his mouths

042820

incantation
simultaneous downloads
Hastur manifests

102218

nobody believes in the zombie apocalypse anymore
they've moved on to the mummy apocalypse
(fight rags with fire)
the werewolf apocalypse
(stake out a goat every full moon)
and the shoggoth apocalypse
(if the Great Race couldn't stop them, what hope have we?
we're all gonna die)

091518c

so many
Lovrcraftian species
flying thru space
with the greatest of ease
unclothed
propelled by...
what mechanisn?
a jump--like Superman?

122117d

If you haven't read "The call of Cthulhu for beginning readers," published by Chaosium, and if you have any shred of interest in dark fantasy, order it for yourself now. Trust me on this, you will not regret it.

051617

The Burgers of Tindalos

The spell will be complete

when fries are burnt on an iron griddle

under the full moon

and the sacred crimson

ointment is spread upon the bodies

yea, the entire bodies,

of the faithful,

and a virgin pickle is dismembered

and consumed with relish,

only then, with the proper incantations,

will the Portal open

and the Chëeseburger

(all praise its name) return to us

from the bowels of the cosmos.

Iä, Iä, Chëeseburger!

Long may it rule!

That is not consumed which can yet return

and in strange eons even hearts may burn

                            (The mad chef Cardius Congestivus)

The end

Apologies to H P Lovecraft & Frank Belknap Long


Brushfires, 2010

Children's literature and weird fiction: a marriage made in…

The Call of Cthulhu for beginning readers

By H.P. Lovecraft, translated (if that's the word)and illustrated by R. J. Ivankovic

What Dread Zeppelin does for Led Zeppelin, Elvis, and reggae, this book does for H.P. Lovecraft and Dr. Seuss. This book could not exist without H.P. Lovecraft's iconic story, but it is actually better than the original story. Ivankovic has transformed Lovecraft's tale of horror into an eerily perfect imitation of Dr. Seuss' instantly recognizable illustrations and verse. Even the size and shape of the book are perfect for a Dr. Seuss book. I said perfect before, but this book, more than a decade in the making, could not be a better marriage of these two artists. The only defects, if it is a defect, is that the book will be incredibly funny to anyone who has read the original story. I think small children will enjoy it a lot, but just imagine what they will think when they, later in life, read Lovecraft's story. Well, order this book now. If you like weird fiction and have read The Call of Cthulhu, you owe it to yourself to buy this book. And if you know a child into the weird, scary, and peculiar, you will be the world's greatest uncle/aunt/friend if you buy them this book.

And if you have not listened to Dread Zeppelin, it is not too late. Do it now!

Publisher: Chaosium, hardback, $20

http://www.chaosium.com/hpls-call-of-cthulhu-for-beginning-readers/ 

Addendum: you know how sometimes you buy something and when you get it you think "oh. I thought it would be cooler."? Well, rest assured, The Call of Cthulhu for beginning readers is not going to do that to you. What I thought when I opened it was "oh my God, it looks even more exactly like a real Dr. Seuss book than I thought it would!" And I started thinking of who I know needs a copy.

The Call of Cthulhu in the style of Dr. Seuss

This looks horribly amazing in all of the best senses of those words.

http://paper.li/TheLovecraftian/1374351193?edition_id=bb278090-c900-11e6-8c0f-0cc47a0d1605

Imagine Dr. Seuss wanting to write the call of Cthulhu. This looks very Seussian, but it is scary as heck. Read the review. That is all I ask.

I have read it now. It is as good as I hoped! Charming and appalling.

****

Poetry Planet

The new Poetry Planet (Diane Severson Mori) is audio poems about animals & other creatures. It includes a poem by me, about my late cat Orpheus, with homage to Fritz Leiber & HPL.

Here is StarShip Sofa (Poetry Planet is near the end)

http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2016/02/17/starshipsofa-no-423-kary-english/

and here is a link to info. about the poets and the poems.

http://divadianes.blogspot.de/2016/02/poetry-planet-no-16-animals-creatures.html

020416

a shoggoth emerged from the sea
loathsome as any could be
its makers revived
their innards imbibed
by madness from underground sea

Shoggoths? I don't believe they exist!

cyclopean ruins
dating to when Antarctica was warm
tunnels bore deep
hieroglyphic tales carved mile after mile
in the lower lithosphere
walls defaced by graffiti
a warm wind from the nether reaches

what is that stench?

Dreams and Cats

What He Doesn't Say


I think my cat's been to Ulthar
he visits pretty regularly
he has that "Don't Mess With Ulthar" air
about him in the morning
when he comes in
he's not afraid of ghouls
and I can tell that night gaunts
know his name

The clincher, though:
my neighbor dreamed of a city
full of cats
most of them were black like mine
they seemed to know her
rubbed against her like my cat does
kept her safe; she's sure they chased away
several kinds of hungry things
the city's name? "Uther" she said
"or something"

HPL's

beneath this stone
an echoic gulf
that which bays

He was a good cat

Orpheus in Ulthar, in Nehwon


 Some say
 cats rule in Ulthar,
 that their strong-paw tactics keep the streets
 clear of zoogs & other riff raff.
 Maybe so, and perhaps, with sinuous leaps
 they can clear the gulfs
 between universe bubbles
 in vengeful hordes.

 But I can't see it.
 My cat doesn't come
 when I call, and no special whistle
 is going to change his mind.
 No purr pressure would make him
 join any Ultharian gang;
 he is a solitary fellow,
 if always ready for a scratch.

 I do wonder, though,
 where he goes for a day or more
 Now and then.
 I swear he never leaves the house.
 But those curious bones
 he was playing with
 after a long absence, they
 fit together for me only one way.
 When I remember
 I'll show them to my anatomist friend.
 I'm sure he won't end up joining
 two pelvises, one set of shoulder blades, six limbs,
 and an impossible number of vertebrae
 to a single oddly holey skull.


 The end

At the Mountains of Madness

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15749757

drilling for million-year ice
in billion-year mountains
geologists find ... concrete

hot drilling fluids sluice
rock chips from the bit
pentaradial barrels warm

Horror poem for Coffin Hop

power off but on
cold nights few notice the smell
Fido howls

I have a Lovecraftian story here

http://www.freewebs.com/batglynn/cyaegha.htm

dreamlands

the dhole posers in their slugsuits fell
whilst night gaunts grin; they're doing well