Tag: poems

Margerumalia – A Sneak Peek

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – August 28, 2026

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I’m excited to share some of the pages of my upcoming book of children’s poetry. It’s called Verses Versus Curses, which is also the name of the first poem in the book.

I call it a book of poems for the young and for the young at heart.

I like to imagine a parent or grandparent reading with a child, enjoying the poems together and laughing over some play on words or talking about the characters in the illustrations.

My favorite comment about my middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles, was when a parent told me that her daughter asked how soon they would visit Grandma so she could read “the museum book” to her again. Warms my heart.

I’m thinking her Grandma is a good at reading out loud, too!

This book will be aimed at a younger audience than my middle grade novel, perhaps late elementary school age if the child is reading for themselves. Younger if an adult is reading to them.

I discovered the illustrator, Andrea Benko, when I created my web page on WordPress and decided to follow other creative types on the platform. Her illustrations were as playful as my verses and had a variety of characters, mostly animals, but sometimes something unexpected. She recently used a watermelon slice as a character, complete with a classically shaped mustache.

Not only that, she knows how to use the technology to lay everything out in Canva, asking for my input for her ideas. Most of the time my comments are along the lines of “keep up the good work” but once in a while we go back and forth with ideas until we’ve got it right. I love the collaboration!

We talk by email and through the comments section in Canva which is a good thing because she’s in Europe and there’s a six hour time lag between us. Modern technology has its benefits!

Here’s another short poem she illustrated:

It was Andrea’s idea to separate the four lines of the poem into four squares. I’d never thought of that and I immediately applauded her choice.

We’re aiming for a completion date of about September 1st in order to submit it to the publisher to get it printed for the holidays. If you’re looking for a unique gift for someone you know, add this book to your list of possibilities. It is a gift that’ll keep on giving when it’s read, re-read, and read again.

I know. I had a book of funny poems that I got in elementary school and I wore out the pages by going through it time and time again.

TTFN

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – The Bride!

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – March 13, 2026

Our daughter’s appearance in The Bride! came at the very end during the closing credits. That’s Lora holding the ax.

We thought the movie was over and her scene had been cut. Two proud parents watching the whole movie only to realize that their daughter’s scene was left on the cutting room floor (or whatever the digital equivalent may be).

BUT THEN the credits continued over Lora’s scene just as she described it! The picture above is her second appearance, the first came right at the very start of the scene, as her Dad shouted “There she is!” Good thing the matinee was practically a private screening and the music played loudly enough that no one else heard me.

Speaking of music, there were two spots in the film that made me laugh at Gyllenhaal’s choice of music. For the end credits they played the old Halloween favorite “The Monster Mash” which reflects the theme of Mary Shelley’s monster who never got a name of his own. It also reflected the story’s trend of idolizing the two monsters. 

The other musical homage was a full blown dance number to “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” which was also used by Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. In fact, Christian Bale yells that titular phase during the dance with the same inflection that Peter Boyle’s monster had used. Nice touch!

The movie was not a horror movie. In fact, I only averted my eyes for about 10 seconds twice so I wouldn’t see what I was afraid I was going to see. (I’m sort of talking around those two moments to avoid a spoiler.)

The Bonnie-and-Clyde dynamic I mentioned last week is an apt comparison, but the significant difference is the number of camera angles where women react to The Bride’s rants. In one such rant she even repeats “Me too!” several times. It’s clear that she’s having an impact which will gradually grow stronger. It also motivates the scene Lora is in, where women have adopted the look of The Bride and flaunt the weapons they carry to defend themselves.

It’s a film where the monster is a kind and loving man contrasted by many other men who are truly monsters.

I wouldn’t have gone to see the movie but for Lora’s appearance, but now I’m recommending it for you to go see. I think you’ll be glad you did.

TTFN

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Two weeks ago I shared my poem “Emerson Aaronson Sat By The Sea” and took it to my writing group for feedback. I thought you might be interested to know about its next stage of development.

Woody, a member of the group pointed out two lines that made him stop and re-read. They were: 

A fish from the ocean that flies through the water 

Or an eagle up-soaring just like her dad taught her.

Emerson is a boy and the female gender of the eagle caused confusion. After all, Emerson was imagining himself as the eagle. The reason I had done so was to enable the rhyme of water and taught her. Taught him wouldn’t work. We discussed the possibilities and Woody suggested making Emerson a girl instead.

I wasn’t sure if people would understand Emerson to be a girl’s name, but SURPRISE, in 2024 the girls named Emerson outnumbered the boys by about three to one. 

I went through the poem changing every he to a her and every himself to herself and it works really well! Thanks, Woody! 

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – A New Year’s Resolution, Part 2

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – January 10, 2025

Part 1 RECAP: 

Infected teeth seem to have played a role in the speech impediment I’ve developed over the past several years. And because they refused to leave a bad taste in my mouth [rim shot] the infection was draining into my bloodstream. The teeth were extracted, I got some new choppers, and it’s time to retrain my brain.

Part 2 RETRAINING

I’ve never worked with a speech therapist but a few of my family members did. 

When my wife was a little girl she had a lisp—that must’ve been adorable—and she was taught to say her S’s by hissing like an angry snake.

My dad was a twin and, together, the brothers had to learn how to say their R’s. It’s a myth that twins have their own language, they just share mispronunciations. Instead of choo-choo trains, they said choo-choo twains—again, adorable.

Dad would tell a story of he and his brother telling the speech therapist about their dog, Wags.

“Rags,” she corrected them. “Your dog’s name is Rrrags.” 

“No, his name is Wags,” they corrected her. “Because he likes to wag his tail!” 

So I’ve begun working on re-training myself. I have an MFA in Theatre and have taught enunciation as a Theatre Professor, so I decided to use my knowledge and apply it to a collection of poems by Robert Frost. The book was an opening night gift from a very special stage manager and it challenges me as I read the poetry aloud. 

I sometimes read a stanza out loud five or six times to conquer the tripping points or the mushy places my mouth wants to go. 

Try saying “more loitering” out loud. Go ahead. I’ll wait…

If you’re like me, you just said “more lortering.”

The “or” of the first word sits in the middle of your mouth with a cupped tongue, while the “oi” of the second word fits further back in your mouth with a flatter tongue and more open passage. Your tongue needs to do a bit of a dance to get from point OR to point OI. Subtle but significant dance steps.

You can find those particular words in the fourth stanza of Frost’s “The Trial By Existence.” 

My goal is to tackle a poem or stanza every day and say it repeatedly until it flows easily—“trippingly on the tongue” as Hamlet put it—and not too emphatically. 

My book sells for $13.99 and I don’t want to sound like I’m tearing off a chunk of raw meat while saying ninety nine. In fact, most of us tend to soften the T into a D and say nine-dee-nine. 

A couple other phrases I’ve stumbled over lately include “toxic masculinity” and “I was being facetious.” I’ll let you try to work out the mechanics on your own. 

You can also repeat “The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles” over and over again. Preferably in a bookstore. Just saying. 

TTFN 

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Margerumalia – Morel, Morsel, Moral, Moray

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – November 8, 2024

[Photo Credit: www.out-grow.com]

Morel, Morsel, Moral, Moray 

A morel is a mushroom to enjoy in tasty bits.

A morsel is a tasty bit to eat in starts and fits.  

A moral is a lesson learned by dropping morel morsels.

A moray is a toxic eel that’s lacking fins or dorsals.

FACT CHECK: Some moray eels are not toxic and are considered a delicacy. In fact, they taste like chicken. Seriously. I read that on the internet. And we all know that’s a reliable source!

A crossword puzzle set me on the path of writing this little ditty. I had a five letter word to complete that started with M-O-R and I started riffing on possibilities in the margins of the newspaper. (Yes, I still get a paper newspaper, don’t judge.) From those M-O-R words I developed the little poem above. 

If you liked that one, you can check out my April 19 newsletter featuring an equally scintillating composition called “Caret, Carat, Carrot.” (All of my previous newsletters are on my website at ericmargerum.com under POSTS. You can search by the poem title or the date.)

Maybe if I write enough erudite poesy, I can gather them into a famous anthology of verses. And you’ll be able to say, “I was reading him long before this publication hit the best seller list!” People will be so impressed! 

You know what else is impressive? The website where I found the beautiful morel photo. [www.out-grow.com] This is not a paid advertisement, I don’t even like mushrooms, but if I did, this website looks pretty thorough and has plenty of advice on growing your own mushrooms. Just saying. 

Catch ya next week. TTFN! 

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.