don’t rue the last days
of October’s calendar
when little goblins
seeking candies door-to-door
run, as parent lanterns glow
I remember taking our kids to Halloween parties hosted by people we knew, but only once or twice taking them trick or treating in our neighborhood, always hovering in the background, half-trepidatiously (is that a word?).
For Carrie's The Sunday Muse #184 -Join in!
A penny shiny from the gutter
she stoops to pick
places auspice in her pocket
passing people on the pavement
like a ghostly apparition
passing through an open door
escapes into the vellichor*
of shadowed selves in memory’s mist
who greet her on Halloween
at Harry’s Magic bookshop.
*vellichor: The wistfulness of a second-hand bookshop.
Eugi's Weekly Prompt - "Halloween" Punam's RDP Saturday - "Apparition" Sammi's WWP #233 - 48 words exactly, ""Vellichor" Top Image credit: sergio omassi from Pexels Bottom Image Credit: RDP Saturday
He’s got no heart
that’s plain for us to see
yet adamantine
chains of our own greed
mocking bind our flesh
permission securing to multiply
lies that his desires ours would circumscribe
She’s got no heart
that we all clearly know
obscure it we must
the voters to con
paid consultants we
diabolical masters creating
sly illusions to blind our client’s tribe
Lisa at dVerse: Poetics -- "Halloweeny Humans" asks us to write about a dislikable human trait. She also introduces us to a new poetic form, the Duodora, which we can choose to use. Duodora Form a quatorzain made up of 2 septets. syllabic, 4/6/5/5/5/10/10 syllables per line. rhymed Axxxxxb Axxxxxb L1 is repeated as a refrain that begins the 2nd stanza. x is unrhymed. Enjoy more at Mr. Linky.
Autumnal severance
season’s flashing tonality
present past present future
the shin hurt of childhood quarrel
aging fruit and jarring tumbler
last year’s fashion muffler, tomorrow’s cinder
moth-eaten “do my bones look big in this?” sweater
witch’s brew of prescription medicines
growing old is time’s obscurer
a flash of autumnal red
like twinkling stars
fade and fall
For Sammi's Day 6 ("witches brew") and Day 7 ("Do my bones look big in this?")
A-Souling
“Hey ho, nobody home . . . ?”
His sing-song question fell on no ears but hers,
deaf all others to its celebratory tones
the night of All Hallow’s Eve.
Tenor voice attuned to hearth,
lights in hands they enter
to find soul cakes laid on barrels,
beer and apples.
None heard him but her,
would never leave her
till her heart stopped, like his:
a toast before departing,
as midnight strikes.
“I will come and sing no more
’til this time next year.”
Soul cakes? A-souling? Unfamiliar with these terms are you, like I was? According to wikipedia, soul cakes are spicy shortbread-like biscuits given out to “soulers” who come round during the days of Allhallowtide singing and saying prayers, a’souling, in fact.
One traditional song, “A-Souling,” was made familiar to us by Peter, Paul, and Mary who sung it as a Christmas song, which for most parts of England it has become. The group Lothlorien sings it in the traditional mood of Allhallowtide.
Click here for the lyrics.
Sammi's Weekend Writing Prompt: "question," exactly 84 words Sammi's 13 Days of Samhain -- Day 4: "soul cakes" Punam's RagTag Daily Prompt: "celebration"
Along the rolling hills I hear
your mournful singing haunting clear
yet windblown.
Under the moon’s vapid eye
how can I, elf, to you deny
your windsongs?
I’ll keep you under lock and key
lest you flee and escape from me
as windstorm.
The elvish king shall have you back
when he returns the one I lack
now windbound.
On Hallow’s Eve we’ll make a swap
my child returned, you with your harp,
— home windward.
Grace at dVerse challenges us today to write a Compound Word Verse, an unfamiliar form to most ous I daresay. She writes: "The Compound Word Verse is a poetry form invented by Margaret R. Smith that consists of five 3-line stanzas, for a total of 15 lines. The last line of each stanza ends in a compound word and these compound words share a common stem word which is taken from the title. (In the first example below the stem word is “moon” from the title “Moonlighting”; the compound words related to the title are moondust, moonbeams, moonsongs, etc.) The Compound Word Verse (3 lines) has a set rhyme scheme and meter as follows: Rhyme Scheme: a,a,b Syllable/Meter: 8, 8, 3 Click on Mr. Linky to read more and join in!
Strange the tale of an elven king’s son
Who lured a maid into the land of the young.
There she took tea, fated never to return
To the land of the living where hopes reigned.
Once she escaped her besom buddies of elven-land
But euphoria died when her long black locks turned white
As haunting memories of the land of the young
Made her yearn for the revelry of elven friends.
On the steps of a cathedral she stood skyward gazing
Behind her from the woods the elven king’s son stood imploring
But she had found a love beside which earthly magic paled
A love eternal from her Maker that over all prevailed.
“I cannot go with you, sweet heir of elven halls
Though surely will I miss you and all your kith and kin.
I have chosen wisely with wisdom from above
To live and die a daughter of the God who does me love.”
The elven lords and ladies left behind remained wondering
Their days of wine, their nights of dance, youth forever blooming
Thrown aside by a poor maid as if they all were nothing
Impressed them not, sincere or not, and soon she was forgotten.
Crimson's Creative Challenge #154 prompt: Image credit Crispina Kemp RagTag Daily Prompt Thursday: "Euphoria" Sammi's 13 Days of Samhain vol ii: Day 2 – "Besom Buddies" Eugi's Weekly Prompt: "Haunting"
Six little kittens on the graveyard shift
On the factory floor in a corner quilt
Heard the clock chime midnight
Heard the place get real quiet
On Halloween.
One went to investigate
The others seemed to hesitate
Heard a “mew” from the factory floor
Where a skeleton hanging on a door
Danced on Halloween.
Two little kittens ventured forth
One to the south, the other north
Past dancing bones until a scream
From a vampire with a ghoulish gleam
Raised furs on Halloween.
Three little kittens waited a space
Then putting on their bravest face
Ran to the aid of their kin so true
When a gravelly voice shouted “Boo!”
A grinning goblin on Halloween.
Six little kittens no longer were
Kittens that scampered here and there
Now they flew in the dead of night
As bats that gave the workers fright
Purring as they slept on Halloween.
Sammi's 13 Days of Samhain vol ii: Day 1 – Graveyard Shift
Here’s a post
For your funny bone:
A vestige of Boo the Ghost
His cereal to atone
This ghost with the most
Has you cornered alone.
Too late, you’re toast
You utter a groan:
Boo’s guitar can boast
A most torturous tone.
Should you humor your host
Or speed away like a drone?
Else:
As Boo-Berry brings you to tears
Stuff the cereal in your ears!
Ragtag Daily Prompt: "vestige"
The sun had taken flight with midnight near
The killer stops uncertainly, afraid,
Behind a sound he hears, sinister, clear,
A hollow breathing, ice-cold hand now laid
Upon his shoulder, grips; he springs away,
As if the fiends of hell were at his heels,
But still pursued, his face with terror, gray.
At last he turns, with courage bold, then squeals
As dead Lucille peals, “Now see how it feels!”
Well, Halloween’s just around the corner isn’t it? 🎃👻 Update: And right on cue, I’m number 13 on Mr. Linky! Haha.
Laura at dVerse's MTB: "Since today is the 9th of the 9th month it is fitting for that numeral to inform today’s poetry form – so let’s meet The Novelinee!. . . Yes, it’s a nine line stanza poem overlaid with this rhyme sequence: a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,d" also written in iambic pentameter.
This Jolly Beggar 