Category Archives: poetry

The Parrot from REH’s “Shadows in the Moonlight” – A Guest Post by Will Oliver

I’d like to thank Will Oliver for this guest post and apologize for taking so long to get it up and for the funky look of the poetry. Formatting poetry in WordPress is surprisingly nontrivial.

Howard’s originally titled Conan story, “Iron Shadows in the Moon,” saw publication as “Shadows in the Moonlight” in the April 1934 issue of Weird Tales Magazine. In that story, a “great parrot” appears voicing a strange cry:

As she peered timidly into the shadows between the trees, something swept into the sunlight with a swift whirl of wings: a great parrot which dropped on to a leafy branch and swayed there, a gleaming image of jade and crimson. It turned its crested head sidewise and regarded the invaders with glittering eyes of jet.

“Crom!” muttered the Cimmerian. “Here is the grandfather of all parrots. He must be a thousand years old! Look at the evil wisdom of his eyes. What mysteries do you guard, Wise Devil?”

Abruptly the bird spread its flaming wings and, soaring from its perch, cried out harshly: “Yagkoolan yok tha, xuthalla!”‘ and with a wild screech of horribly human laughter, rushed away through the trees to vanish in the opalescent shadows.

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Reading Robert E. Howard on National Poetry Day

 

I saw somewhere that today is supposed to be National Poetry Day, so I thought I would read some selections by one of my favorite poets.  Robert E. Howard is held in pretty high esteem in these here parts.  This is a side of Howard’s writing that isn’t as well known as it should be.The volume you see on the left is over 700 pages in length. It was published by the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press.  If you don’t have a copy, that’s unfortunate. It’s out of print.  (And you ain’t gettin’ mine.)

Here are some of my favorites. Continue reading

Addendum to Review of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly

I was reading the review of the current issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly on the Swords and Sorcery blog and realized I hadn’t scrolled down the contents page far enough when I read HFQ this past week.  I missed the final poem altogether.  That poem was “Legend” by Colleen Anderson.  I found the poem to be somewhat depressing.  That’s a good thing in this context.  The poem was a moving look at a legend’s passing, and I Ms. Anderson did a good job of capturing the feeling of loss that would accompany such a thing.

My apologies to Ms. Anderson, the editorial team at HFQ, and my readers for the oversight.