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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 3d

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.)

Jack o' Lantern illustration by Cecily Peele.

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 4d

O, the infinite sadness of it all!

Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 4d

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.

Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 5d

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.

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 8d

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...

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 8d

Thank you.

Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 9d

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 11d

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.

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 11d

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.

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 11d

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.

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 12d

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 12d

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 12d

Much appreciated!

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 13d

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.

Adam Bolivar by church in Woodland, Devon

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 15d

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...

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 17d

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 21d

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

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 21d

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...

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 27d

(This should be available in all countries now): www.amazon.com/Told-Firelig...

Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls: A Wordhord of Alliterative Verse

Amazon.com: Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls: A Wordhord of Alliterative Verse: 9781956702187: Bolivar, Adam, Coffman, Frank: Books

www.amazon.com

Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · 27d

Those who delight in tales of the old Northern gods Wóden, Thunor, Fríg and Lúca will surely crave this book of poems, meticulously wrought in accordance to the strictures of alliterative verse once faithfully heeded by scop and skald. www.jackanapespress.com/product/told...

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · Sep 8

Obligatory link: www.jackanapespress.com/product/told...

Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls: A Wordhord of Alliterative Verse

Sharpening his skills as an alliterative poet, Adam Bolivar offers a follow-up to A Wheel of Ravens: a new collection of Old English-style...

www.jackanapespress.com

Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · Sep 8

A lovely review of my new alliterative verse collection has appeared in Cemetery Dance! www.cemeterydance.com/extras/revie...

Review: Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls by Adam Bolivar

Told by Firelight in Timbered Halls by Adam Bolivar Jackanapes Press (September 2025) Reviewed by Joshua Gage Adam Bolivar is the author of The Lay of Old Hex (Hippocampus Press, 2017), The Ettinfe…

www.cemeterydance.com

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · Sep 8

I meant the toxic sunset poem.

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · Sep 8

I think you going for an alexandrine, which is iambic and 12 syllables per line (iambic hexameter). However, some of the lines vary in length and meter, so it's not quite right, but 12 syllables seems to be the baseline. Maybe you could call it an irregular alexandrine?

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Adam Bolivar @adambolivar.bsky.social · Sep 7

Lychgate to churchyard, Woodland, Devon.

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