April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[353] “The Coalbaggie Bogey” (1891-1894)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/DeXp_5c-Q0k

Further background:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62960361

Video: Charles Napier (as Tucker McElroy) reprises his scene-stealing lines from The Blues Brothers in a cameo in this tale of a New South Welsh poltergeist where one of the protagonists, Jacob Stein, shares his name with an alias of John Belushi’s Jacob “Jake” Blues. Yes, I really did go out of my way to write a section of this poem – about a stone-throwing, furniture-moving, shapeshifting, vociferously swearing poltergeist – as an homage to my love of the cult 1980 movie: well … who else was going to do it?

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[454] “The Shawville Poltergeist” (1889)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/PapxQNB3Upw

Further background:
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-valley-ghost-hunt-on-the-trail-of-the-dagg-shawville-poltergeist-with-video

Image: The home of the ill-named Dagg family of Shawville (near Clarendon), Quebec where an equally ill-named journalist, Percy Woodcock, debated with an ill-mannered disembodied voice in front of witnesses in the late nineteenth century.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[439] “The Ghost of the Prophet Samuel (and the Witch of Endor)” (c. 1025 BCE)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/7HvlyZzs_AU

Further background:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2028&version=NIV

Image: William Sidney Mount’s (1828, oil on canvas) painting of Saul and the Witch of Endor also shows the summoning of the ghost of the prophet Samuel: the story of which encompasses the earliest documented case of a talking ghost or poltergeist. Inexplicably, there are no references to the Star Wars universe’s Ewoks in the Biblical version. There are in mine. Yub nub.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[327] “The Galdenoch Ghost” (1680-1697)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/qF1GWLnnmUA

Further background:
https://www.goblinshead.co.uk/bogles/ring-croft-of-stocking/

Image: The ruin of Galdenoch Castle (as it is today) from which a seventeenth century Scottish ghost sallied forth to wash an elderly woman in a nearby stream.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[297] “Gef the Talking Mongoose” (1931-1941)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/GsCZ4qieLBs

Further background:
https://library.umbc.edu/specialcollections/garrett/curiosities-and-oddities/gef/

Image: Gef, the irrepressible talking mongoose, who haunted the Isle of Man in the 1930s. Fun fact: before it received its final title, Noisesome Ghosts was known as “Gef the Talking Mongoose & Other … Poems” and it was Gef’s story that inspired me to research and write the book. Even after living with all the weird entities of Noisesome Ghosts for this not inconsiderable time, Gef remains the weirdest of the weird.

My head is heavy, my limbs are weary,
And it is not life that makes me move.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[287] “The Kurihara Possession” (2001)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/uGG_z9tbdGo

Further background:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n03/richard-lloyd-parry/ghosts-of-the-tsunami

Image: Honnyo the wheat mascot of Kurihara. “For some moments in life there are no words” – Willy Wonka.

Empty Sky Of Faith

Oak trees that arch over the home-lined lane
conclave our neighborhood with ambience
that shines with grand cathedral elegance
of calm security which shields our lives
from political turbulence

https://surazeus.blogspot.com/2025/04/empty-sky-of-faith.html

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[277] “The Ringcroft Poltergeist” (1695)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/BM83tSOSN78

Further background:
https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/the-haunting-of-ringcroft/

Image: A tree marking the site of the former Ringcroft farm today. The Ringcroft case not only instances an uncommon case of a writing poltergeist but also of an extremely rare case of parapyrogenia: the paranormal setting of fires.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[262] “King James’ Banshee” (1437)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/h8RgQoWDATM

Further background:
https://maskofreason.wordpress.com/the-book-of-mysteries/know-your-ghosts/europe/banshee/

Image: King James I of Scotland prior to receiving a warning wail from a helpful banshee. If your policies of statecraft elicit a negative response from a trans-dimensional spectral being it’s probably best to re-assess your position.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[242] “A Ghost of Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney” (n.d.)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/wrBujGnou6k

Further background:
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/high-spirits-20040106-gdi3yn.html

Image: Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney as it is today. The impressive colonial architecture harbours an unpleasant male shade that is inappropriately interested in female visitors.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[184] “A Ghost of the Stage Door, Canberra Theatre Centre” (2071-)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/FVO8fF0lj_o

Image: A basement backstage corridor at the Canberra Theatre with the Theatre’s (orange) Stage Door visible at the landing in the background. A speaking and writing ghost is expected to haunt this location from 2071 onwards.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[178] “The Apparition of C.S. Lewis” (1963)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/6yFTP3FdoDk

Further background:
https://ghostsghoulsandgod.co.uk/2020/04/c-s-lewis-appearing-to-j-b-phillips/

Image: C.S. Lewis (left) and Canon J.B. Phillips in life. Lewis’ apparition would later appear to Phillips and explain that communication beyond the grave was “not as difficult as you think”.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[165] “Michael Dale Sutherland: The Centrahoma Poltergeist” (1990)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/dq1A22NtH-I

Further background:
https://scarymatter.com/2023/01/31/the-centrahoma-poltergeist/

Image: Twyla McWethy (second from right) found herself as the focus of a poltergeist who claimed he was from Saturn.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[162] “Charles Fort’s Poltergeist Girls” (1932)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/5dvawjNlx0c

Further background:
https://sacred-texts.com/fort/wild/index.htm

Image: Charles Fort (pictured) was an early American psychical researcher. In his 1932 book Wild Talents he imagined a “squad” of “poltergeist girls” that would be deployed by the United States military to destroy all before them: drowning their adversaries in waters translocated from Niagara Falls, or obliterating them with cliffs telekinetically removed from the Rocky Mountains.

"A bird that sings all day
a poet hears at night and
thinking nightingale
composes some didactic verse
more about himself
than what is most likely
a robin"

#TodaysPoem #poem @poetry #NationalPoetryMonth
Poem by Bardia Sinaee from Intruder (2021 House of Anansi Press) http://bit.ly/3lwUIeR

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[158] “The Miraculous Case of Mary Jobson: File Notes” (1839-1840)

Graham’s reading
https://youtu.be/cshUgETpk2U

Further background:
https://www.icysedgwick.com/sunderland-ghost-stories/

Image: The Wheatsheaf Hotel, built in the 1890s, stands today in the historical locality of Monkwearmouth, Sunderland: the scene of the haunting of Mary Jobson in the 1840s. Admittedly the Wheatsheaf Hotel has very little to do with the Jobson case, but, hey, these can’t all be first-round picks.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[105] “The Balornock Poltergeist” (1974-1975)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/fNCDpJj9Aws

Further background:
https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/tale-balornock-poltergeist-terrified-two-27462329

Image: Northgate Quadrant, Balornock (as it is today): where an unseen force moved furniture and made music – including a rendition of “The Dead March” – in Glasgow in the 1970s.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[086] “The Disinterment of Rosa Spadoni” (1950)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/fZb1gdcPUbk

Further background:
https://anomalien.com/rosa-menichelli-the-ghost-that-was-buried-alive/

Image: The University of Camerino, Italy: where parapsychologist Giuseppi Stoppolini was employed when he received a message from a woman who at the time had unfortunately been dead for five years.

April is National Poetry Month in the US and – seeing as it might be the last one – I’m celebrating by sharing recently-released recordings of poems from my collection Noisesome Ghosts made by Graham Farram.

[071] “The Ghost of Captain Robert D. Macleod” (15 June 1995)

Graham’s reading:
https://youtu.be/ZTD-5UPT58g

Further background:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12118487.former-pilot-tells-of-ghostly-meeting-with-dead-colleague/

Image: Glasgow Airport: where Loganair Captain Bob Hambleton-Jones met face-to-face and spoke with colleague Captain Robert D. Macleod in June 1995. Hambleton-Jones was unaware that Macleod had actually died three days previously in Edinburgh. At the time of their meeting Macleod’s casket was transiting through Glasgow Airport.