Adam Bolivar
@adambolivar.bsky.social
Alliterative poet, balladeer, weird fiction writer and playwright for marionettes. adambolivar.com
If anyone has read my new alliterative verse collection, would you consider leaving a quick review or at least giving it some stars? My gratitude knows no bounds! www.amazon.com/Told-Firelig...
November 11, 2025 at 2:50 AM
If anyone has read my new alliterative verse collection, would you consider leaving a quick review or at least giving it some stars? My gratitude knows no bounds! www.amazon.com/Told-Firelig...
Reposted by Adam Bolivar
william balfour ker -- just posting this for no reason
November 5, 2025 at 2:09 AM
william balfour ker -- just posting this for no reason
18th-century highwayman Sixteen String Jack was so popular he entertained seven women at a farewell dinner before his execution. In a specially made pea-green suit adorned with a large nosegay, he enjoyed cheerful banter with the hangman and the crowd, then danced a jig before being publicly hanged.
November 4, 2025 at 10:46 PM
18th-century highwayman Sixteen String Jack was so popular he entertained seven women at a farewell dinner before his execution. In a specially made pea-green suit adorned with a large nosegay, he enjoyed cheerful banter with the hangman and the crowd, then danced a jig before being publicly hanged.
Arrowyn stumbled on this post on Threads about our marionette show last night. We're the new face of Portland!
November 2, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Arrowyn stumbled on this post on Threads about our marionette show last night. We're the new face of Portland!
Jack rests his weary bones, a temporary reprieve from his eternal wandering.
November 1, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Jack rests his weary bones, a temporary reprieve from his eternal wandering.
Jack and a strange creature from the ocean's black abyss...
November 1, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Jack and a strange creature from the ocean's black abyss...
Jack Neepe, Esq., at your service. Come follow my flickering light into outer darkness for all eternity...
November 1, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Jack Neepe, Esq., at your service. Come follow my flickering light into outer darkness for all eternity...
Ah ha! My mate Jesse Kaszniak sent me some photos of last night's poetry reading and marionette show, JACK AND THE GREEN ETTIN, a retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
November 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Ah ha! My mate Jesse Kaszniak sent me some photos of last night's poetry reading and marionette show, JACK AND THE GREEN ETTIN, a retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Last night's poetry reading and marionette phantasmagoria was a resounding success! We had a full and very enthusiastic house. I pray some photos will surface. Many thanks to my tremendously talented puppeteers @niyyahwrites.bsky.social & Arrowyn Craban Lauer (pictured here) and Paris Weslyn Meyers.
November 1, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Last night's poetry reading and marionette phantasmagoria was a resounding success! We had a full and very enthusiastic house. I pray some photos will surface. Many thanks to my tremendously talented puppeteers @niyyahwrites.bsky.social & Arrowyn Craban Lauer (pictured here) and Paris Weslyn Meyers.
Jack Neepe summons you to the Rose City Book Pub in Portland on Halloween at 8 p.m. for a phantasmagorical evening of spooky poetry and macabre marionettes. You disregard his invocation at the risk of wandering in darkness for ALL ETERNITY!!! @johnshirley2024.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Jack Neepe summons you to the Rose City Book Pub in Portland on Halloween at 8 p.m. for a phantasmagorical evening of spooky poetry and macabre marionettes. You disregard his invocation at the risk of wandering in darkness for ALL ETERNITY!!! @johnshirley2024.bsky.social
Jack is looking jolly this year! That's because he knows he'll be reaping a good harvest of souls to send to HELL...
October 30, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Jack is looking jolly this year! That's because he knows he'll be reaping a good harvest of souls to send to HELL...
The sacred neep is ready to carve. I conjure thee, Jack!
October 30, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The sacred neep is ready to carve. I conjure thee, Jack!
Reminder to Portlanders to come to the puppet phantasmagoria on Halloween night: a spooky poetry reading followed by a pagan retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by means of marionettes. What better way to celebrate Samhain? (At the Rose City Book Pub, Portland, Oct. 31st, 8 p.m.)
October 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reminder to Portlanders to come to the puppet phantasmagoria on Halloween night: a spooky poetry reading followed by a pagan retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by means of marionettes. What better way to celebrate Samhain? (At the Rose City Book Pub, Portland, Oct. 31st, 8 p.m.)
Rainbow! This picture doesn't do it justice. It looked huge and unbelievably close. Bifröst was near.
October 25, 2025 at 1:34 AM
Rainbow! This picture doesn't do it justice. It looked huge and unbelievably close. Bifröst was near.
Pet peeve: whence means 'from where'. You need only say
'whence'. 'From whence' is redundant, but it's such an old and common misuse, it's basically accepted at this point.
'whence'. 'From whence' is redundant, but it's such an old and common misuse, it's basically accepted at this point.
October 21, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Pet peeve: whence means 'from where'. You need only say
'whence'. 'From whence' is redundant, but it's such an old and common misuse, it's basically accepted at this point.
'whence'. 'From whence' is redundant, but it's such an old and common misuse, it's basically accepted at this point.
Nursery rhymes that go hard.
October 20, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Nursery rhymes that go hard.
Mr. Scratch adjures you to come to the Rose City Book Pub in Portland this Halloween, and be regaled by spooky poetry read by @johnshirley2024.bsky.social and Adam Bolivar, followed by a diabolical marionette show, JACK AND THE GREEN ETTIN, a pagan retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
October 19, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Mr. Scratch adjures you to come to the Rose City Book Pub in Portland this Halloween, and be regaled by spooky poetry read by @johnshirley2024.bsky.social and Adam Bolivar, followed by a diabolical marionette show, JACK AND THE GREEN ETTIN, a pagan retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
In honour of Oscar Wilde's birthday, here is a picture of me doing my best impression of him. Alas, I am the one ageing, not the portrait...
October 16, 2025 at 10:41 PM
In honour of Oscar Wilde's birthday, here is a picture of me doing my best impression of him. Alas, I am the one ageing, not the portrait...
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.)
October 6, 2025 at 10:04 PM
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.)
O, the infinite sadness of it all!
October 5, 2025 at 3:13 AM
O, the infinite sadness of it all!
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.
October 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM
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.
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.
October 4, 2025 at 2:56 AM
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.
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...
October 1, 2025 at 4:35 PM
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...
Me reading at the alliterative verse conference in Norwich earlier this month and a group photo of all the attendees.
September 30, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Me reading at the alliterative verse conference in Norwich earlier this month and a group photo of all the attendees.
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.
September 28, 2025 at 11:00 PM
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.