January 27: Monster Movies, Dorothea Lasky, "Monsters"

I have always been a freak for monster movies.  Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon.  I used to watch all of them, over and over, as a kid.  I sort of identified with them, like Guillermo del Toro.

I'm hoping to see The Shape of Water tonight--a monster love story.  In the spirit of that film, I have a little poem from Dorothea Lasky about a monster.  A little one.  It's sort of a kids' poem, and it's sort of NOT a kids' poem.  It touches the monster in all of us.

Saint Marty is ready to howl at the moon a little tonight.

Monsters

by:  Dorothea Lasky

This is a world where there are monsters

There are monsters everywhere, racoons and skunks

There are possums outside, there are monsters in my bed.

There is one monster. He is my little one.

I talk to my little monster.

I give my little monster some bacon but that does not satisfy him.

I tell him, ssh ssh, don’t growl little monster!

And he growls, oh boy does he growl!

And he wants something from me,

He wants my soul.

And finally giving in, I give him my gleaming soul

And as he eats my gleaming soul, I am one with him

And stare out his eyepits and I see nothing but white

And then I see nothing but fog and the white I had seen before was nothing but fog

And there is nothing but fog out the eyes of monsters.

October 2: His Own Room, Surprising Transformation, New Blog Look

It was his own room.  There was no doubt about that.  But it had undergone a surprising transformation.  The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove, from every part of which, bright and gleaming berries glistened...

The Ghost of Christmas Present transforms Scrooge's apartment into a Christmas wonderland of green and berries and wild game and steaming bowls of punch and chicken Alfredo pizza and garlic bread and Belgian waffles.  OK, I added those last few items, but you get the idea.  Scrooge barely recognizes his place of residence because it is festooned for the holidays.

Yesterday, I did a little decorating of my own.  I put up some witches and skeletons and jack-o'-lanterns and spiders.  I was getting in the spirit of Halloween, obviously.  When it gets near my birthday, I get the itch to change things around.  Yes, I did just use the "c" word in a positive context.  Don't think that I've suddenly found my inner child or anything.  I enjoy the holiday seasons, from All Hallow's Eve to Thanksgiving to Christmas.  I enjoy the colors and ornaments and garlands.  And I enjoy the gradual shift from the darkness of October 31 to the bright joy of December 25.

That is why I changed the look of my blog yesterday, in keeping with the season.  I chose Boris Karloff's Frankenstein because it is one of my favorite films.  Perhaps some people may not find the new look appropriate for the subject matter of my blog, but I believe that having a sense of humor is important when talking about every subject, whether it's spirituality or poetry or chicken Alfredo pizza.  For those of you who think using Frankenstein's monster is a little irreligious, I wish to point out that the story of Frankenstein is about man reaching for the heavens, striving to be a god.  The morality of the tale comes with the failure of Victor Frankenstein and his ultimate destruction by his own creation.  See, there's God in everything.

So, for those of you who get upset about Frankenstein or Halloween, my advice is to lighten up and enjoy the season.  Or at least enjoy the candy that goes along with the season.

Monster say, "Milky Way gooooood..."

Saint Marty is ready for a little trick-or-treating.