I discovered, while poking around my docs folders, a longish, rhymed poem-in-progress. As I read it I started to tweak things here and there and eventually added several new verses. I pondered it over lunch, reading it aloud in the elevator and adding more verses, and I decided that it was definitely Edgar Allan Poe-ish. (Edgar Allan Poe-esque?). It’s called “Arthur’s Gift” — at least for now — and it’s one of those gifts no one particularly wants: a family secret handed over on a deathbed. Here’s a sample verse:
But Arthur had not left his room
remaining there ensconced in gloom,
the book and key so tempting
He’d placed them both upon a chair
a voice inside him warned “Beware
for Mae was ever vexing.”
My big question: when it is complete (to my liking) what should I do with it? Options include:
- make an audio recording
- make a video to accompany its reading
- illustrate it and publish the resulting book (or ebook)
- wait until I have other creepy poems and publish them together (then I could also do the audio version)
I’m leaning toward the illustrated book option; I think it would be comparable to Haiku Miscellany and a good fit for LuLu with a print/ebook option. Then again, if I can make it an epub, I can fling it in other online marketplaces… but I don’t know what the market is for longish rhymed poetry these days. I also like the idea of collecting some of my creepier poems into one volume.
Before I leave the topic of Edgar Allan Poe, and because I suspect some of you will ask, I don’t like the look of the new movie, The Raven. Yes, it stars John Cusack who can make a pile of pablum like Must Love Dogs watchable, but I fear that, like the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes it’s just an excuse for the set and costume designers to put “steampunk” on their resume. View the trailer, below, and be your own judge. I probably won’t bother while it’s in the theatre…