3rd Halloween Poem Contest – 3rd Group Of Submitted Poems

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/eco-quartier/eco-tips-for-halloween/

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Please respect each authors’ and poets’ copyright. The rights remain with the writers. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from each of the poems author’s is strictly prohibited and violates copyright laws in the country you are reading this work in as well as in the country you are trying to re-publish this work in. – Aurora Jean Alexander
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Dark and frost prich’t, on this cold nich’t, Witches did rumble.
Sprites and bumpkins, nipp’d ankles, and spakles, nipp’d noses.
Hoar on trees, ice on the burn’s, on which faeries tumble
And laugh, and caper, winter approaches, creatures creep from loaches
Hedgerows, and crypts, Duns, barrows and Cysts, Frich’t, and humble,
alike take tail and bridle and scramble away as true evil approaches.

Each jigsaw cow and horned ram, no matter how old, cries for their mam,
Each rutting boar and pregnant sow cowers.
Each antlered stag, snuffling badger, fierce wildcat and shivering Lamb,
Slink away and hide themselves in dark windswept bowers.

The faerie fair and capricious are, the sprites and bumpkins calm
As night grows deep o’er the faerie realm.
Nymphs, Dryads, all manner of faerie folk shudder and quake, as doors slam
Closed upon the dreaming night, as awakens Helm.

The god of the night, the god of the storm, of the darkness.
The god of the trees, of the hunt, of madness,
Shakes his dark head, his horns, churning the clouds,
Even the yearning dead know his wrath through their shrouds.

2.
Maeve, weeping lying there,
Cannot celebrate this night,
A death, a dire warning, bereft.
She lies, in her weeping, dreaming, plight.
From beneath the mouldering stones an ancient creature
Watches, her husband walked upon it’s grave and it sees her light.
Her beauty and truth, her plight
Even old evil can love.

Unholy night, unholy life, the veil between the two worlds grows thin.
The between time,
The remaking.
Unholy life and a sight of light, Samhain is here, I am a reborn Djinn.
A stone moved,
a life taken.

Maeve prays.
My holy father who art in heaven.
The gods hear, helm awakes, it is Samhain.
An unholy spirit wakes beneath the damp sod of the Argyll hills

3.
Into the dark Depths of a Scots winter,
A pale shadow creeps,
Bereft of life but barely dead
Through ancient stones it seeps
An unmade thing, no veins, no red,
Coursing through the deeps,
Nothing but hatred needing to be fed.

From its tomb of stones and broken bones the pale shadow creeps.
Rising into the cold and forsaken night.
From its slumber and desiccation, dark dreams and haunts, it seeps.
Forming, gaining substance on this dark night.

4.
Helm stalks the land, thunder and fury,
And all quake under his might.
The shadow creeps silently, terrifying by presence
rather than sight.
The humans gone hidden in beds,
the thinkers quailing in their own head’s,
the faerie gone and hiding,
the monster’s awaiting, abiding,
their time till the sun comes again.
No one wants to be out
On this braw Brich’t moonlit nich’t
This all hallows e’een.
Each has a soul to take and each wishes the same one.
Poor sad Maeve.

I ran from the house, ripped apart,
My true love dead and gone,
I ran from the house seeking death for myself.
Spirits, faerie, consoled me and wept with me.
Darker presences also thought of me.
I was not wholesome. Spoiled dark and difficult.
A shadow talked with me as I sat on a felled log,
a god asked me why I was sad.

There is a clearing,
Quiet, moonlit and beautiful on a night such as this.
There is a clearing,
Dark and quiet, shaded from all around, where one would be cast,
Under, into the abyss, the unceasing, pestilence of hell
From which one rose, the other gained.
The god and daemon will do battle for their right to the souls of the living.

Tear and rend, rend and tear
The old god and demon fought
Rip and tear, Tear and rip
Until everything will stop.
Flesh and bone, eyes and nose,
Tear and score, score and tear,
Hands and feet fingers and toes,
Legs and hands and talons or claws
Rend and rip, slash and rip
for the right to
their bodies and their souls.

They battled one against the other,
Until the sun rose on All Hallows and were banished again,
Ripped and torn, wounded and bereft,
one to the ancient crypt the other to the depths of the forest.

We crept quietly, limbs shaking, into the chilly dawn.
We crept quietly into the quiet Morn.
Shaken, assured,
Worried, Wakeful,
Wishful.
Can we now make our own destiny?

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All Hallows Eve, is an old Scot’s tradition where, it is thought that the walls between the faerie and the human realm grow thin. Old gods again walk the earth and the creatures of Darkness again stalk the night looking for souls to inhabit. We re-join our tale as the humans have retired for the night. Baskets filled with candy, fruit and nuts. Costumes discarded upon the floor or folded away neatly and the Fae have all slunk away into their bowers, den’s and mounds, before the truly frightening ones appear.

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Glowing In The Night by Marjory Mallon

Glowing in the night,
A sugar bonbon tease,
Candyfloss critter,
Tennis ball,
Lying in the grass.

Hidden amongst gravestones,
It implores me – Pick me up,
Roll me, throw me, catch me!
Join the dead who come to play,
Cemetery games.

Wicked trees carve possibilities,
Gnarled branches twist,
Hush, Whisper,
Freeze frame this moment,
Temptation on a knife edge.

I resist!
The ancient ball gleams anew,
Rainbows of magical colours entice.
I weaken. It candy pops,
An imaginary snack in my hand.

I stagger, fall back,
Words whizzing, powerful,
First serves, my opponent,
Wins Game Set and Match,
There is no Facebook funny – Simon’s Cat.

Instead a demon Cheshire cat,
With sharpened fangs,
Devours my imagination,
Savouring me, the delicacy,
It grins, its tummy full of my thoughts.

It licks its greedy lips,
Sits in the tree,
Hoping a writer will pass by soon,
Too curious to walk away,
Another Halloween victim.

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Russian Pumpkin Basket by Annie Yoon

Here comes my basket full of joyous candies
covered with autumn generosity.
Let’s appetize with classic candy corns.
Sugary orangey mundane gulosity.

Next is this marshmellow —
apparition-like fluffy delight. Sticky honey
inside thaws like early October snow.
Perhaps give a shot saying “chubby bunny”?

What’s this sugar-coated one?
Oh, a vampire teeth gummy!
Chewy Dracula incizor in my
gaping mouth so frighteningly yummy.

What I already have in my mouth is
fourth — an eyeball chocolate. The acute pussy-
eyed darkness unleashes its spherical form to envelope
my teeth. Too bad it isn’t popping juicy.

Almond nail of this pretzel witch finger being crushed
between two molars. The cannibal’s well-
made confection piques my macabre drive. Might as well
cast a munchy wicked spell.

“Last but not leas-” the moment of mastication, a
a tiny metallic shard scythes my overjoyed tongue.
Now drenched with peanut butter and blood — enough
to gargle the saccharine sanguine syrup.
The sixth bullet — oh no, candy is dead wrong.
“Trick-or-treat!” Children’s voice echoed in my cerebrum.
I smiled with teeth wide-open — splattered with crimson bonbons!

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SAMHAIN by V. M. Sang

Don’t go near the graveyard, darling,
Samain is tonight.
Don’t go near the graveyard, darling,
The dead will walk this night.

Keep your candle burning, darling,
Keep it glowing bright.
Keep your candle burning , darling,
Be sure it gives you light.

The bonfires have been lit, darling,
To fill the dark with light.
The bonfires have been lit, darling,
Their flames reach such a height.

Put your home fires out, darling.
Be sure to do it right.
Put your home fires out, darling.
From bonfires we’ll relight.

Put food by the door, darling.
Leave it in plain sight.
Put food by the door, darling.
For our own to have a bite.

Do not be afraid, darling,
They see that we’re alright.
Do not be afraid, darling,
no harm from them tonight.

But evil spirits come, darling.
We must put them to flight.
Nut evil spirits come, darling;
Them we must try to fight.

Go and watch the bonfires, darling.
Stand in their bright light.
Go and watch the bonfires, darling,
To keep us safe this night.

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This is only the third group of submissions. Please, keep them coming and make it really hard for the jury to decide on the winners!
A. J. Alexander