Glass Raven

An amazing Poe-inspired stain-glassed window created by my crazily talented sister-in-law. This beauty is hanging in our entry-way just inside the front door. The design is actually based off a logo by The Poet Oatmeal Stout, one of my favorite seasonal brews. I think it turned out fantastic - worthy of hanging all year round!

http://newhollandbrew.com/beer/mainstays/the-poet/

Dreamland

I had the weirdest dream about Edgar Allan Poe last night/this morning. It's all fading so fast that I barely remember much of it except that Poe was dressed in an off-white suit and a panama hat like a southern gentleman (think: Tom Hanks in 'The Ladykillers') and we were sitting outside on a large plantation-style porch on wrought iron furniture. It was definitely a trip to get to hang out with him and sip tea and talk poetry. The big thing I remember is that I kept thinking: "He has nice manners, but he's too smart for me - I don't know what to say without sounding stupid..."

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME.

Orange Poe

Edgar Allan Poe
Originally uploaded by Dingerz

My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep
As it is lasting, so be deep!
Soft may the worms about her creep!
Far in the forest, dim and old,
For her may some tall vault unfold-
Some vault that oft has flung its black
And winged panels fluttering back,
Triumphant, o'er the crested palls,
Of her grand family funerals-
Some sepulchre, remote, alone,
Against whose portal she hath thrown,
In childhood, many an idle stone-
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne'er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.

Poe Shadow

Edgar Allan Poe
Originally uploaded by chucka_nc

[From the photographer's description:] Bust in the garden at Edgar Allan Poe Museum. Not exactly a huge place, but a few interesting artifacts -- His desk, chair, some writings, childhood bed, etc.

I must see this. I WILL see this...someday.

Happy Birthday

It's hard to put in to words just how strongly I connect with the greatest American writer and poet of the 19th century - Edgar Allan Poe. A true master of words and weaver of fear in prose, it's perhaps Poe's poetry that really resonates with me the most. If you've never read any of his poetry, why not take a minute on your break from work to stop by the Barnes & Noble in the skyway and pick up a copy? It just may change your life. Happy birthday, good sir - you were a misunderstood genius gone before you time and you deserve to be toasted each year (I will be raising a pint in your honor tonight), even if the Poe Toaster is no more...

http://www.startribune.com/nation/114184339.html

One of my favorites:

ALONE

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

Edgar Allan Portrait

Edgar Allan Poe
Originally uploaded by Steve, H.

I would hang this in my house of Usher.