5th Halloween Poem Contest – And The Winners Are…

Picture courtesy of https://northernnatalcourier.co.za

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

The jury has decided!

Today I’m writing representing the Jury of the 5th Halloween Poem Contest 2019.

The winners of the contest are:

Halloween by Donna Matthews

Don’t let them in by MacKenzie Tastan

The Witching Hour by Valerie Cruz

(The winners are listed in order of their submissions)

Thank you so much for your amazing poems, winners! You will get an email today.
______________________________________________

Our three winners of the contest can choose one of the offered e-books.

Signed Paperbacks with a T-Shirt of Hiding from the Light – OR – Winter’s Ghost – OR – The Painting written by Raymond Walker
E-book of A Horse by Any Other Name: A Doctor Butterbaugh Mystery – OR – E-book of A Girl and Her Dog: A Short Story – OR – At the End of the Rainbow – OR – What you wished for, written by Sherry Perkins
E-book of “Soul Taker” – OR – ‘Sundance‘ written by Aurora Jean Alexander

CONGRATULATIONS!

It was a difficult decision for the jury. But we had a lot of fun and want to thank all poets for their wonderful poems.

______________________________________________

Thank you, Raymond Walker and Sherry Perkins for their jury work and offering one of their books to the winners. I appreciate your help and support!


Now, please permit me a word on my own account:

The Halloween-Poem Contest has brought us all a lot of work and fun and many wonderful Halloween poems, showing how much talent there is around.

However, it also showed us, with this year having the lowest number of participants, that our poets have shown all their skills within the Halloween theme. 

After five years of organizing the Annual Halloween-Poem Contest and hosting it on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest,’ I think it is time for something new.

It was five years of fun and I wanted to thank everyone, all participants, and in particular all jury members from the first to the last contest, for making this a wonderful experience for me! Thanks so much for all your work, your help, your support – and the wonderful books you offered as prizes in the five years! You all are amazing, not only as authors but also as wonderful friends!

Good Bye Halloween-Poem Contest. It was great.

A. J. Alexander

5th Halloween Poem Contest – 4th And Last Group Of Submitted Poems —

Picture courtesy of http://preventioncdnndg.org/

Please respect each authors’ and poets’ copyright. The rights remain with the writers. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed 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


The Witching Hour

by

Valerie Cruz

When willows arch their backs in reverence,
bowing toward the earth below.
When evening breezes messenger the coming of the moon’s pale glow.

When night birds telegraph their omens,
fresh from lunar heights, foretold and hearth sides showcase flames emblazoned,
burnished embers edged in gold.

From deep in silent, grassy places sodden with late-evening air.
Ambivalent to strange embraces,
lilies bring their buds to bear.

Amidst the stony tributaries built to those no sound may reach.
To evidence impermanence,
engraved with lessons, yet to teach.

Here begets the Witching Hour, slivered apex of the night.
All at once, begun and ended,
metaphor for mortal plight.

Taunts all life with fear and splendor,
dreams of flying, long since lost.
Tempts the grave with memories tender.
Glimpse the light, whatever cost.

Coiled within the misty shadow,
serpentine and poised to strike, lay the horrid reckoning
feared by both chaste and foul alike.


Graveyard Speed Dating

by

Chris Meredith

The cold and misty air contains a deathly musk
A stench that hovers over the graves
Stirring from the ground of depth
Lost souls looking upwards to be saved

Bony hands clutch their invitation
Tight to their skeletal chest
They hope to attract a new dead mate
One they can touch and maybe caress

Darkness is their familiar friend
As they sit beside their first date
Beauty is in the socket of the beholder
As a specialty, their head rotates

Stripped of flesh and brains
They now judge on spirit alone
They talk about previous lives
And reminisce about earthly homes

The church bell sounds its tune
Its time to swap around
The truth is they will never find new love
While they all sleep six feet underground


NIGHTMARES

by

Agnieszka Filipek

1.

it’s night
the avenues burning
in moonlight
the death of a child
jumping
from a roof

horses with iron hooves
pulling the corpse
the skull slamming
on the curb
ghouls fighting
over the remains

dawn startled
escaping into the trees
and his coat
caught by rain
dragging
blooded

2.

finding
my mauled body
damp in a ditch
darkness
stretches its arms
threatens to embrace

even my kitten of hope
is falling off
the fence
and a roadside scarecrow
is gouging out
his eyes

3.

I cannot sleep
close my wet eyes
with your hand
with your lips cover
the gates of nightmares
sit beside me


 

5th Halloween Poem Contest – 1 Day Left – Hurry Up!

Picture courtesy of http://preventioncdnndg.org/

 

Deadline for the contest is

October 31, 2019 – 9 pm Pacific Time

Hurry up!

Every author and poet are invited to participate and deliver a “Halloween-Poem” to my email address:

aurorajean.alexander@aol.com

together with their picture and a link to their website, a social media account or blog

  • Your poem needs a Halloween theme.
  • Your poem needs a minimum of 99 words.
  • Your poem has to be delivered to my email address between October 10 and Halloween, October 31, 2019, at 9 pm Pacific Time.
  • Your poem has to be delivered together with your picture and a link to your blog/page.
  • Please avoid violence, bad language, and sexual content within the poems. It would be disqualified.

Thank you very much for participating and making it very hard for the jury to decide on the winners!

5th Halloween Poem Contest – 3rd Group Of Submitted Poems —

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

Please respect each authors’ and poets’ copyright. The rights remain with the writers. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed 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


Halloween Halls

by

Ashley R. Clayton

 

There is a being, you see, upon this evening’s brow;
two stories up, where the night’s extinguished candle was used to enshroud.
Over the flame she turned, over their breath she heard, their pensive dishes of gruel and meat,
their spoons clashing, bread ripping, as they spoke of things without understanding;
without understanding at all.

Notes of music spilt onto the wooden floors; clanging mouths and spit soon sealed every door.
A rush away, chains soon met.
Truth was heard whispering nevermore;
it was beckoned back through the Hall’s front doors.

Now with violence ripped and pages fell,
Darkened calendars and lighted gold,
the lady of the manor haunts her lonely, ever darkened but discreet,
Halloween Halls.


Don’t Let Them In

By

MacKenzie Tastan

A party had gathered the night of Samhain
When a stranger arrived. “Won’t you please let me in?”
He was no acquaintance; his horse threw a shoe.
With the rain, might he stay and enjoy the fun, too?
His hair, black as pitch; his frame, mighty tall:
The ladies were swooning all over the hall.

In this golden era when Victoria was queen,
By turns they told ghost stories each Halloween.
The house master waited. He told his tale last.
His guests scarcely breathed till the story had passed.

His ancestor conquered this manor by siege
And ousted the king who had long been its liege.
But people still loved him. For full victory
The conqueror lashed the old king to a tree.
In public he severed the fingers and toes
Of the king one by one. Then he lopped off his nose.

The dying man gave his last curse to the land:
“You may prosper today. You may think your luck grand.
But I promise you this: Nuada shall return!
My torture and murder will be overturned
When I visit on you what you’ve given to me.
Not even your children will ever be free!”

The master’s eyes gleamed as he warned the hushed hall,
“One night he’ll come back here to murder us all!”

By now, all the house guests were too scared for bed.
As midnight approached, the house mistress said,
“It’s time to tell fortunes. Who wants to go first?”
They fled to the parlor from thoughts of the curse.

They each took an apple and sliced it nine ways
In front of the mirror. They’d find true love’s gaze
By eating eight pieces, then tossing the last
Over shoulder by candlelight. Inside the glass
Some claimed to see friends or that gleam in the eyes
Of the one they loved best, like young Lydia’s prize:
The stranger in darkness who stole her first kiss
While the guests, rapt with stories, saw nothing amiss.
At last her turn came, but her lover had gone:
Vanished into the night with the horse he rode on.

Young Lydia, pretty, the house’s last daughter,
Saw gilded glass ripple like midnight water.
Her love’s noseless visage grinned wide like a skull:
“King Nuada’s back! Now your family line’s null!”

Nine months, and poor Lydia brought forth a son.
Her father’s grim gaze knew whose battle was won.
In the boy shone the stranger. No fingers or toes.
The most frightening thing was his lack of a nose.

Now Lydia nurses her babe by the hour,
Guarding his life from her family’s power.
No mere mortal child will inherit the land:
One look at his face shows King Nuada’s brand.

On Samhain, the veil between worlds grows too thin.
Be wary of strangers and don’t let them in.


A Father’s Hallowe’en message.

By

V. M. Sang

 

I Died.
I didn’t want to go.
I left my wife and daughter so
I cried.

I thought
I could no longer see
All their future without me.
I fought.

I found
That each All Hallows Eve,
I could return—I need not grieve.
Not bound.

I come
On to them each Hallowe’en.
They do not know. I am not seen.
I’m dumb.

They live
And I surround them both
With all my love. I am not loath
To give.

Here ends my tale.
I will be filled with endless glee
When they come to dwell with me
Beyond the veil.


Picture courtesy of https://www.rmusentrymedia.com/

 

A Little Night Music

by

Laurie Corzett

She appeared
out of the night.
Dark mystery arousing
curiosity,
distraction, concern.
(When will I ever learn
to let these heartbreaks
in the making
pass me by?)

Voodoo of attraction,
sacrosanct intimacy.
Impelled to submit in throes
of flagrant ecstasy.
Do what you will with me
in our secret rendezvous.
Then relinquish me to go
back to my wastrel ways.

She grabbed me with such force
I felt I could die.
And that was just her eye
pulling me close
to continue
our conversation.
Great conflagration
arose in my heart.
So adept at her art
of igniting
imagination.

Cruel fate
mocks nocturnal fantasies.
Yet, swept up in delight,
facing dualities,
the wrong and the right,
I too easily sell my immortal soul
for her eternal night.

She tastes my sin
drip laughing from my skin.
I freely forswear my life.
Fierce pierce and suck
lunge in the for kill.
There’s no greater thrill.
We descend into dark fall.
Fade into shadow before approach of light.


 

5th Halloween Poem Contest – 1 Week Left!

Picture courtesy of http://preventioncdnndg.org/

Deadline for the contest is

October 31, 2019 – 9 pm Pacific Time

Hurry up!

Every author and poet are invited to participate and deliver a “Halloween-Poem” to my email address:

aurorajean.alexander@aol.com

together with their picture and a link to their website, a social media account or blog

  • Your poem needs a Halloween theme.
  • Your poem needs a minimum of 99 words.
  • Your poem has to be delivered to my email address between October 10 and Halloween, October 31, 2019, at 9 pm Pacific Time.
  • Your poem has to be delivered together with your picture and a link to your blog/page.
  • Please avoid violence, bad language, and sexual content within the poems. It would be disqualified.

Thank you very much for participating and making it very hard for the jury to decide on the winners!

5th Halloween Poem Contest – 2nd Group Of Submitted Poems —

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

Please respect each authors’ and poets’ copyright. The rights remain with the writers. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed 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


Halloween

by

Donna Matthews

goblins and ghouls shrieking all night
it’s halloween! the witches dance and sing
haunting humanity with terror and fright

vampire bats wake and take flight
tender young necks a delicious thing
goblins and ghouls shrieking all night

gravediggers shovel dirt; sneering with delight
human spare and found parts they fling
haunting humanity with terror and fright

the boogeyman tall, fearsome and might
terror and dread his shadow will bring
goblins and ghouls shrieking all night

zombies moan in the bright moonlight
out of the grave and wandering
haunting humanity with terror and fright

the graveyard bathed in an eerie green light
it’s halloween! the witches dance and sing
goblins and ghouls shrieking all night
haunting humanity with terror and fright


All Hallow’s eve Candy Girl

By

Marjory Mallon

Curvaceous candy stick girl
Her brash hair is pink
Her nails are too
She sashays by and disappears.
A tickled pink apparition

of rainbow stripy stockings.
She teases with her lipstick smile
Twirls by too darn quick
Like champagne bubbles
Blinking through false lashes. See

a passerby’s hair is now lollipop blue.
Nails a pretty sky hue
Captured joining sweetest nibbles!
She sighs, candy-lipped
As sensual silks sway

in symphonies of sweet organza.
Come bubblegum hearts
Sugar sweet babes,
Licorice all-sorts.
Let’s sashay away marshmallows,

tempting.
Trick or Treat, sugar-tipped
Coins, gum, pick and mixes
Chewy, jelly, sherbet fixes
Candy cone bites mingle

as Joker snatches bonbon handfuls.
Devils desire red chilli sweets
Vampire fangs dip in space dust
Pumpkins gobstopper around
Addams family – Cousin Itt

who sits with VIP scary magic minx’s,
Witches, and sugar twitches
Cocktail umbrellas and alcohol pitchers
The party heightens and revels
Trick or tricksters tumble

trapped In sugar-coated ditches.
Ghostly gatecrasher’s senses tremble
One chocolate heart’s never enough!
Skeletons, please… die, resuscitate
Join us for one last fizzing bite!


 

The Churchyard at Night

by

Stevie Turner

A hooting owl
Sits on a bare branched yew,
While shadows from the moon
Creep across the tombs.
Fog rolls in from the east
And the churchyard sleeps.
The chiming of midnight
Is a doleful sound.
It wakes up the corpses
Who live down in the ground.
One by one
They moan and taunt,
And go a-haunting
As is their want.
They rattle their chains
And scream with all their might,
The living hear them and fear
All things going bump in the night.
No one is safe
Until daylight seeps through
The bare branches
Of the aforementioned yew.


Necropolis

by

Anisha Jain

The rusty, creaky iron door
Welcomes you in to the land of the dead
Where, to Hades’ ravenous earth,
Bodies of the dead are fed.

The chilling wind and moonless night
Are a reminder of their last moments-
How their body went cold and eyes lost light,
How they took a last wheezy breath.

The gravestones stand like sentries
On the battlefield of the graveyard,
Each guarding its own;
For who knows when claustrophobia might strike ’em.

Each one with a different epitaph-uniform
Like the shortest biographies in the world,
A whole life crammed in a couple lines
Just like the body in the coffin inside.

Some moss-covered, some cracked
Some’s uniform so worn,
You can’t even decipher the engravings
A whole life, forgotten.

Flowers, once red, but now so withered
They crumble into dust at the slightest touch,
Their bond with the living plane broken
Dead, like the subjects of the tombstones.

Here and there you might see a snake
Come to guard the dead from the living,
To see that no one crosses the Styx alive
Lending a hand to the boatman.

The oaks and pines are grave,
Just like the yard they grow in
Realising that none but the gods are immortal
Thanatos will come for them one day.

One day this graveyard will grow so vast
That it covers the entire Earth,
One day no one will be left to give
Living roses to the dead.


5th Halloween Poem Contest – 1st Group Of Submitted Poems —

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

Please respect each authors’ and poets’ copyright. The rights remain with the writers. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed 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


The Hunt…

By

Christopher Graham

It was Halloween night, the full moon was bright,
why did you choose the witching hour
to explore this old house, where not even a mouse,
would eat any food, it would be sour.

Then a spooky sound, echoes around.
Claws, clickety, clacking on the floor.
You look all about, and know without doubt.
They’re coming from just outside the door.

Suddenly … silence … there can be no more pretence.
You know, that they know, where you are.
The window is open, but is that just a token?
Are there others waiting by your car?

The choice is stark, to go out in the dark,
and take the chance it’s all clear.
The handle starts turning, your stomach is churning,
Is it one, or two, or all … Oh Dear.

No time to plead, you must take the lead,
through the window and drop to the ground.
Get onto your feet, run fast and fleet,
over the hedge you bound.

Use all your cunning and keep on running,
The river is near, flowing water they won’t cross.
You reach the bank, the water smells rank.
Time to swim like a Boss.

You gasp and wallow, find the river is shallow,
so you splash to the other side.
Climb out, look about,
there must be somewhere to hide.

The moon is still high, no clouds in the sky,
There’s a light you can see up ahead.
Safety at last? Is the danger passed?
But then, to your uttermost dread.

Howling has started, you feel faint hearted.
They’d found a bridge and had crossed.
To the light you race, without trying for grace.
Then suddenly, the light is lost.

You sink to your knees, your breathing a wheeze.
They found you lying prostrate.
Their fangs were bare, as they grin and stare.
“Good game Mistress, really first rate.”

Your three dogs leap about, as if to shout,
”We won again, fair and square”
Without further ado, with some barks and a BOO,
all head for home, they for treats, you to have a shower.


You Glow

by

Sleeping In Bed With Jumpers On

Whispered to me, on the holy Wiccan hour.
Fool’s searching answers from the Page of swords. The crucible in his poison-lips. My hands turn cold.
Poised for the lovers to show me the mystic.
Eyes so sad, desperate for the eternal witness.
He tasted of a street corner- malice curiosity,
birthed with the caul, with foresight he led.
My body performing for him. He will never want me deeper.
Drink my offering – pray in threes: have me, have me, have me.
Tongs dance with serpents in figure eights.
Hands nailed open, from the past I asked for.
Fingernails chewed to the wick- a warning of fouls profits.
Blistered saws- snubbed out black candlesticks.
He tore away flesh as I fastened my grip.
Powdered salt lips- gently playing to contort.
Bulling out the needle, not thinking of the scare.
Obscurity startled the black ally cat.
Talking in tongs of a lover that meant more.
Standing mute. Under the harvest full moon.
Inspecting my entrails for answers to leave.
I gave thanks to the sacrifice that tended my needs.
The body crumbled, as he revealed his true vengeance.
The spell, broken. I saw behind the seven veils.
This creature of the night. Christened by spite.
Hands over eyes- I was left dancing in crop circles.


Halloween Poem

by

Catherine Ross

On one hallows eve
The text said meet me
In the graveyard
By the guards
Of the iron gate.

It said there’ll be a date.
Though I must say
It was weird in a way
My Vampiric sensors alarmed
I’m not easily charmed.

My sarcophagus quietly opened
I went into the unknowing
The full moon showed the dirt trail
Found the gate without fail
Arrows led me to a stone.

Its familiar name glowed.
The one from the text,
Now had me perplexed.
The dirt began to move,
“Hello, my love, do you approve?”

I felt a pain in my right arm
My blood had been farmed
She and I had become one
“My love, what have you done?
For it cannot be reversed.”

“You are forever cursed.”
“We’ll be together forever,” she exclaimed.
I should feel ashamed
“My love, together forever it will be.”
On one hallows eve.


SONY DSC

October 31st

by

James Gaynor

 

Once you open the door
it can be hard to tell
under feathers and masks
swan from princess
prince from frog
because so often
they are both

The bedsheet ghosts
can be bribed to go haunt
the neighbors but
once the door is open
your own phantoms appear
an invisible few
you know who

They won’t go away and
never stop talking about
what should have been different
despite now knowing it all
could only have been what it was
which is why they’re dead
and you’re not

And that’s life
once you open the door


 

5th Halloween Poem Contest – Start!

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

*************************************************************

It’s

October 10, 2018

1st Day of the 5th Halloween Poem Contest, here on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’.

It has started!
*************************************************************

Every author and poet are invited to participate and deliver a “Halloween-Poem” to my email address: aurorajean.alexander@aol.com, together with their picture and a link to their website and/or blog.

There are a few rules to follow:

  • Your poem needs a Halloween theme.
  • Your poem needs a minimum of 99 words.
  • Your poem has to be delivered to my email address between October 10 and Halloween, October 31, 2019, at 9 pm Pacific Time.
  • Your poem has to be delivered together with your picture and a link to your blog/page.
  • Please avoid violence, bad language, and sexual content within the poems. It would be disqualified.

Every poem that meets the rules and is delivered within the deadline will be published here on “Writer’s Treasure Chest” together with the provided picture and link.

The contest starts October 10, 2019 06.00 am and ends October 31, 2019 09.00 pm Pacific Time!!

Please, deliver your poem and your picture to my email address within this time frame, neither earlier, nor later. Poems arriving outside these 3 weeks will be disqualified.

aurorajean.alexander@aol.com

We’re looking forward to your poems! Write away, ladies and gentlemen, we are ready!

A. J. Alexander

5th Halloween-Poem Contest – Jury introduction – and Start Up

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

******************************************************************************

JURY:

I am honored to announce that the following authors have agreed to participate as judges in the jury who will decide on the winners of the contest:

Author Raymond Walker
Author Sherry Perkins
Author A. J. Alexander

Thank you, authors, for your effort to be part of this contest!

There will be three winners in the 4th Halloween poem contest. Each of them is free to choose from the following prizes:

Signed Paperbacks with a T-Shirt of Hiding from the Light  – OR – Winter’s Ghost – OR –  The Painting written by Raymond Walker
E-book of A Horse by Any Other Name: A Doctor Butterbaugh Mystery  – OR – E-book of A Girl and Her Dog: A Short Story – OR –  At the End of the Rainbow – OR –  What you wished for,  written by Sherry Perkins
E-book of “Soul Taker” – OR – “Sundance‘ written by Aurora Jean Alexander

I’m very grateful for these excellent authors to offer their books as a prize in this contest. Thank you!

******************************************************************************

STARTUP!! OCTOBER 10, 2019

Every author and poet are invited to participate and deliver a “Halloween-Poem” to my email address: aurorajean.alexander@aol.com, together with their picture and a link to their website and/or blog.

There are a few rules to follow:

  • Your poem needs a Halloween theme.
  • Your poem needs a minimum of 99 words.
  • Your poem has to be delivered to my email address between October 10 and Halloween, October 31, 2019, 9 pm Central Standard Time.
  • Your poem has to be delivered together with your picture and a link to your blog/page.
  • Please avoid violence, bad language, and sexual content within the poems. It would be disqualified.

Every poem that meets the rules and is delivered within the deadline will be published here on “Writer’s Treasure Chest” together with the provided picture and link.

The contest starts October 10, 2019, 06.00 am and ends October 31, 2019, 09.00 pm Central Standard Time!!

Please, deliver your poem and your picture to my email address within this time frame, neither earlier, nor later. Poems arriving outside these 3 weeks will be disqualified.

aurorajean.alexander@aol.com

We’re looking forward to your poems! Write away, ladies and gentlemen, we are ready!

A. J. Alexander

5th Halloween-Poem Contest

Picture courtesy of: http://preventioncdnndg.org/

It is a great pleasure for me to announce the
5th Halloween-Poem Contest
on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’.
************************************************

Every author, poet, and reader is invited to participate and deliver a “Halloween-Poem” to my email address: aurorajean.alexander@aol.com, together with their picture and a link to their blog/page.

There are a few rules to follow:

  • Your poem needs a Halloween theme.
  • Your poem needs a minimum of 99 words.
  • Your poem has to be delivered to my email address between October 10 and Halloween, October 31, 2019, 9 pm  Pacific Time.
  • Your poem has to be delivered together with your picture and a link to your blog/page.

Please avoid violence, bad language, and sexual content within the poems. It would be disqualified.

Every poem that meets the rules and is delivered within the deadline will be published here on “Writer’s Treasure Chest” together with the provided picture.

End of this month I will introduce this year’s jury members to you. I am very proud that these authors agreed to be part of our contest.

The contest starts October 10, 2019 06.00 am and ends October 31, 2019 09.00 pm Pacific Time!!

Please, deliver your poem and your picture to my email address within this time frame, neither earlier, nor later. Poems arriving outside these 3 weeks will be disqualified.

aurorajean.alexander@aol.com

We’re looking forward to your poems!
A. J. Alexander