Behind Already.... Gifties Galore!

The Poetic Exchange has been underway for a few days now. Sooooo much fun! Due to long work days and illness (meaning out like a light by 8pm every night this week), I have not been able to post the progress until now. But thanx to a day off and a break in the weather, I was able to take pics... so let me share the booty with you here....

"Once upon a midnight dreary" dear Tami Roth gave to me, a kreepy kool Raven/Edgar necklace! And beautiously wrapped in a star shaped box with scrumptious ribbons! Thank You, Thank You Tami! My daughter Raven has already tried to claim it as her own.... but I'm not relenting.

On the 2nd day of the POEtic Exchange, dear Linda Duffy gave to me, wrapped in a graveyard scene...

...a lovely collage with an excerpt from the sorrowful poem of Edgar's called Annabel Lee. Many thanx Linda!

With a Love that the winged seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And the stars never rise
but I see the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

On the 3rd day, with grateful glee, I opened the present dear Saundra James gave to me....

... the staring eye made me a little nervous but I proceeded, with caution.....

and inside I found this precious, hand-made heart pendant! Thank you Saundra!

.... And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst.... Excerpt from The Tell-Tale Heart.

On the 4th day, with a squeal and a jump, I opened the present dear Terrie Lightfoot gave to me...

wrapped in this splendid fabric bag of spooky imagery and yummy colors, this fantastic necklace with a shrine pendant full of detail and delicious color!

With the last line from The Tell-Tale Heart and Edgar on the back, close to my heart. Wow Terry, Thank You!

On the fifth day of the POEtic Exchange, my soul friend, Kelly Snelling, gave to me....

a treat and a treasure and a hand-wrought Raven of my very own! Shiny pearls and powerful turquoise dangles from the Raven. She's carrying them off to her nest of treasures now doubt. Thank You sweet friend!

Kelly well knows my affinity for Raven's. She and I both have a love of birds but Raven's have a mystical and sometimes macabre character that makes them even more interesting. Raven's are known in legends and tales as intuitives, tricksters, messengers, communicators and keepers of deep mysteries, holders of ancestral memories, and are thought to be representative of our shadow selves or the darker side of our psyche. The negative connotation of the Raven has mostly surfaced within the last few hundred years. This may be related to their scavenging the remains of battlefields and so they became an omen of death. I prefer to revere them for their primordial, resourceful and comical qualities. Really, just watch a Raven strut and hop about, it's sure to make you giggle.

I do remember the first time I read Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven, in 6th grade I think. Quite the conjurer of fear and madness is he. I remember I read it 3 or 4 times in a row. It chilled me and the images my mind created have stuck with me all these years. Then I read The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum, once again I quaked and shaked but still I wanted more. Poe believed that "Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality." Oh, he got that right!

Well, tomorrow is day 6, the day my Altered Guild friends open my gift. How exciting! Hope you enjoy it friends! I'll post more pics tomorrow but for now I leave you with this diddy from Edgar....

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.