from six to nine years old, i was obsessed with a hallowe'en poem. i had it memorized, and would recite it to my little brother or myself or anyone else who might listen. when i moved from indiana to ontario, i lost the book and slowly forgot the poem as i drifted into my teen years. this morning, i woke up determined to remember, at the very least, the poem's refrain, hoping that it might lead me to the entire poem.
work, brain...!
and as i puzzled over breakfast, and washed my face, and dressed, a rhythm for the refrain drifted to me... "and the [blah blah blah blah blah blah] if you don't watch out." could this be from the poem? i struggled to remember more. i sat down at my browser, and started to type what i could remember, and suddenly the word 'goblins' came. yes!
my long-lost favourite kids' poem: "little orphant annie" by hoosier poet james whitcomb riley. and, imagine, the u of t poetry site has the full text of the poem online!
An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood-an'-kin;An' wunst, when they was "company," an' ole folks wuz there,She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
well, happy hallowe'en!
2 comments:
That poetry site, and I suspect the transcription of that poem, are made possible through the generous work of the venerable Ian Lancashire, whose course on Cybertext I was fortunate enough to take back in 2000. That was the course that introduced me to Racter, the Cyborg Manifesto, Snowcrash. It was also in that course that I began researching digital poetry, which led me to approach d=wh in my search for a copy of bp Nichol's first screening, which in turn led me to the ubu list, which is where I first became aware of a certain a. raw.
ta da!
thank you, ian!
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