Ramble about Poe and Halloween

Another day started with me waking up 2 hours before alarm was set to go off.  I started thinking about Halloween, even though my family doesn't really celebrate it anymore. I love everything about Halloween and fall, the change of seasons and the tales of ghosts. Ghost hunting shows are some of my favorites. I love learning about the history of the buildings that are haunted and the reasons why people think they are haunted. I get really wrapped up in the stories and I get freaked out when they see floating balls of light and self slamming doors. It gives me chills!

 

I even have some Halloween music that I really enjoy. "Monster Mash" and "Purple People Eater" on the one hand and groups like Nox Arcana on the other. My favorite of their CDs is Shadow of the Raven. Poe is one of my favorite poets and many of his works are appropriate for this time of year and this CD really captures the melancholia and the longing of the poems.

 

 

Talking about Poe, here is one of his poems that I really love (just because I re-read it this morning and it is stuck in my head):

A Dream Within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow —

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone? 

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand —

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep — while I weep!

O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

 

Isn't that beautiful? I love it!

 

Koko was full of people today, I think because it was Columbus day, and I finished the last session of my foundation strength training. When I go in on Wednesday I will start a new training program. I'm excited! I felt really great this morning when I woke up. My back was pain free, my legs weren't cramping, my allergies weren't acting up, and I was happy. Gotta count for something, right?

 

I walked .88 miles in 17 minutes. That gets me to the lovely total of 8.13 miles in 3 hours, 1 minute, and 17 seconds. Hobbiton will soon be hidden from view in my Walk to Mordor. I'm slowly making progress! In 10 more miles I'll have walked one day! That's all for today. Talk to you tomorrow!