This year, I suggest a sad and lovelorn Halloween, tender and tolerant of monsters. The book for the mood is the 1816 novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1797–1851), a classic of gothic literature whose pages inspired foraged-fare acorn scones, a cocktail, and a bread pudding—not weird science, but foods of love.

Lês fierder by The Paris Review… Lês fierder

Stricken with self-doubt, paranoia and existential despair, the writings of Franz Kafka have taken generations of readers on what the author called “the descent into the cold abyss of oneself”.

A trove of 150 drawings, retrieved from a Swiss bank vault in 2019 after years of legal wrangling and presented to the public for the first time on Thursday, offers a more cheerful interpretation of the term “Kafkaesque”, however.

Lês fierder by The Guardian… Lês fierder

Ald-deputearre Bertus Mulder reagearre op myn kollum Eigen folk; hy wie it der net mei iens dat ik in ferbân lei tusken in brek oan boargerskipsfeardichheden en in brek oan tolerânsje, yn dit gefal foar Afgaanske flechtelingen oer, dy’t krekt it Talibangeweld yn Kabul ûntflechte wiene.

Hy omskreau my yn syn reaksje as ‘in frommeske dat geef Frysk prate mei in swier aksint’. Ik beskôgje dat leau ik mar as in komplimint. Al kleeft der oan sa’n karakterisearring fansels de rook fan linguicism: diskriminaasje op grûn fan taal, dialekt of aksint.

Lês fierder by Omrop Fryslân… Lês fierder

Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the choka, a Japanese form with a variable length.

Before we jump into this week’s poetic form, I just want to give a heads up that we may be spotty on poetic forms through the rest of the year. I’ll be poeming daily in November for the November Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge, and December is usually a busy month. That said, we’ll be back at it in January (if I’m not able to sneak one or two in before then).

Speaking of the choka (OK, maybe we weren’t, but…), it’s a Japanese poetic form with a variable length that follows these guidelines:

Lês fierder by Writer’s Digest… Lês fierder