Adam Bolivar

Halloween Hellions poetry reading and puppet show poster

The Green Ettin marionette

Mr. Scratch marionette

Reminder to Portlanders to come to the puppet phantasmagoria on Halloween night: a spooky poetry reading followed by a pagan retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by means of marionettes. What better way to celebrate Samhain? (At the Rose City Book Pub, Portland, Oct. 31st, 8 p.m.)

Little Almost Done? 😂

Yes! I got so much practice writing those--and those comical Doctor Who audio stories. I think you and I did some of those too. (Come to think of it, we anticipated Big Finish by many years!)

@michaelbroussard.myatproto.social It was indeed a remarkably enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

Penfold, shush! 😃

Vivid rainbow

Rainbow! This picture doesn't do it justice. It looked huge and unbelievably close. Bifröst was near.

Samuel Johnson grimacing at the use of 'from whence'.

Pet peeve: whence means 'from where'. You need only say
'whence'. 'From whence' is redundant, but it's such an old and common misuse, it's basically accepted at this point.

Piss a Bed, Piss a Bed, Barley Butt, Your Bum is so heavy You can't get up.

Lyer Lyer Lickspit, Turn about the Candlestick, Whats good for Lyars, Brimstone and Fire.

Nursery rhymes that go hard.

www.rosecitybookpub.com/home/#events Rose City Book Pub, 1329 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR 97212. Friday, Oct. 31st, 8 p.m.

Mr. Scratch adjures you to come to the Rose City Book Pub in Portland this Halloween, and be regaled by spooky poetry read by @johnshirley2024.bsky.social and Adam Bolivar, followed by a diabolical marionette show, JACK AND THE GREEN ETTIN, a pagan retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...

In honour of Oscar Wilde's birthday, here is a picture of me doing my best impression of him. Alas, I am the one ageing, not the portrait...

Thank you for having me!

Jack o' Lantern illustration by Cecily Peele.

Inspired by the onset of the spooky season, I composed a new ballad about a man who follows Jack's lantern to the twilit land, where time moves differently and he doesn't return for a hundred years. The poem is, of course, autobiographical. (Illustration by Cecily Peele, 1939.)

O, the infinite sadness of it all!

Name known to be a pseudonym. Education privileged. Justice neatly executed. Nothing sordid, vulgar or plebeian. Deserving cases preferred. Police no object. Specialist in fairy stories.

Poster for Halloween Hellions poetry and marionette show. Rose City Book Pub, Friday, Oct. 31st, 8 p.m.

Portlanders! This Halloween, take a break from the ceaseless warfare 😉 and hearken to macabre verse read by legendary author John Shirley @johnshirley2024.bsky.social and myself, followed by a marionette retelling of SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT. At the Rose City Book Pub, Fri. Oct. 31st, 8 p.m.

This is an unheard-of price for an academic book. A must for any lover of medievalist poetry. (Plus one of my own poems is in it!) How can you resist...? www.bloomsbury.com/us/speculati...

Thank you.

Me reading at the alliterative verse conference in Norwich earlier this month and a group photo of all the attendees.

Oh come with old Khayyám, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

Some more cards from my tarot deck. The "skull and roses" image I used for the Death card, though mostly known now because its association with the Grateful Dead, comes from the Edward Sullivan illustrations for the Rubaiyat.

Messing around with a deck of tarots cards I created years ago. Probably the most disciplined thing I've ever done: I tasked myself to make one card a day for 78 days. The Magician is a bit of a self-portrait.

Medieval hellmouth

Would you care for some dinner rolls before your eternal punishment?

Thank you! Tolkien was a pioneer of adapting the form to Modern English. I studied his alliterative poems carefully.

Much appreciated!

Adam Bolivar by church in Woodland, Devon

Mutartis Boswell by the grave of William Lovecraft, Broadhempston, Devon.

I am pleased to report that my article “Discoveries in Darkest Devon” has been accepted for the LOVECRAFT ANNUAL: a bone-chilling account of Mutartis Boswell's and my expedition into the eldritch hinterlands of Devon to unearth the hitherto-undiscovered graves of H.P. Lovecraft’s English family.

Medieval church in Broadhempston, Devon

Graffito male stick figure

Graffiti in the church Mutartis Boswell and I visited in search of Lovecraft's ancestors' graves. One is especially interesting--reminds me of the Cerne Abbas Giant. The article says it is likely a figure from folklore. Maybe it's Jack! devonhistoricgraffiti.org.uk/broadhempsto...

#24 in Medieval Literature! Watch your back, Piers Plowman.😆

The readings will be held at the Sonder Bar 1925 NE 42nd Ave Ste E, Portland OR 97213.

Portlanders! On Saturday at 1 pm, I shall be reading poems from my new alliterative verse collection as part of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, alongside the illustrious authors John Shirley @johnshirley2024.bsky.social and Garrett Cook. Come one, come all! hplfilmfestival.com/hplfilmfesti...