Late October in the northern/western hemisphere…

Oak, maple, birch, and other myriad leaves turned bright yellow, red, and orange—from the far north hills to the Connecticut coastline. The leaves of the giant oak near my deck turned kaleidoscope, seemingly overnight. Now, these colored leaves crinkle and fall in the rising autumn breezes, as my wind chime gently weeps.

Days shorten, nights lengthen. And the Bride now regularly pushes the button on my black cat decorative doorbell—for Halloween returns this Friday.

Welcome, Poets, to this eerie edition of Haibun Monday, where we write in that hybrid form of poetic prose and haiku. Frank Tassone, here, your Fright-meister for this celebration of the spooky. Today, let’s commemorate Halloween!

The veil between the physical and Spiritual realm thins during this time of year. Or so the ancient Celts believed: that prolific people, who once populated Europe from Ireland to modern Turkey, celebrated Samhain, their harvest and new year celebration. Confident that the spirits of the dead would return to visit the living, they prepared feasts for them. & lest the more malicious trouble them, many living Celts took to disguising themselves as spirits themselves.

Thus, trick-or-treating and costume-wearing evolved.

The early Western Christians also found this time of year to be one for reflecting on the dead. Halloween derives from All Hallows Eve, the vigil celebration of All Hallows Day, now known as All Saint’s Day. Together with the day after, All Souls’ Day, and this trinity of days has sometimes been known as the Christian Days of the Dead.

You feel that chill down your spine inspiring you, right?

Some poets have found their own Halloween inspiration:

Untitled
Martin Gottliev Cohen

The night air is wet and still. The scent of pine trees settles in the leaves near the cabin. My mother takes us children to visit my aunt on Halloween. We enter the darkened room, and on the table is a hollowed-out pumpkin with a lit candle in it. Tobacco smoke passes over the pumpkin’s cut-off top and the smoke’s shape changes as it rises to the ceiling beams. Light comes out of holes carved for eyes and a big grin from the dark pumpkin. The scene reminds me of a room lit by a prayer candle, a glass half-full of wax with a lit wick that projects its flickering light on the walls. My father had sat on a small wood bench fasting and praying for his father who had died during the night. I walk across the room and see a picture of my father as a child.

Jack O’Lantern
shadows pass through
each other

Courtesy of Contemporary Haibun Online 2:1

Halloween Haiku (21 of 25) by Srinivas S

ghost town
the sky dressed in clouds
for the costume party

Courtesy of Haikuniverse 10-31-21

Excerpt from The Raven

By Edgar Allan Poe

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—

    Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

    It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    “Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—

“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!

    Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

    Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

    And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

    And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

            Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Courtesy of The Poetry Foundation

In whatever way we relate to it, let’s celebrate this Halloween with our own haibun of horror! Let’s write our haibun alluding to Halloween!

New to haibun? The form consists of one to a few paragraphs of prose—usually written in the present tense—that evoke an experience and are often non-fictional/autobiographical. They may be preceded or followed by one or more haiku—nature-based, using a seasonal image—that complement without directly repeating what the prose stated.

New to dVerse? Here is what you do:

• Write a haibun that references Halloween.
• Post it on your personal site/blog.
• Include a link back to dVerse in your post.
• Copy your link onto the Mr. Linky.
• Remember to click the small checkbox about data protection.
• Read and comment on some of your fellow poets’ work.
• Like and leave a comment below if you choose to do so.
• Have fun!