Poems in Honor of October
Just Dress Up One More Year
I don’t know how I feel about it. Halloween is easier when children are small, When all they care about is candy And playing dress up. Grinning pumpkins – think of the way they smell As the candle scorches their skin! Somewhere a bonfire burns. The street’s lit up Like a big block party That goes on for miles. Please, just one more house! Mom, would you carry this for me? Mom, would you carry me? It’s easier then. When children are young We’re young too – What do we know of death? But age plays tricks. Somewhere there’s a plaque Or a stone with a too-familiar name. Maybe more than one. When the chill wind blows And the dry tree limbs creak The ghosts are all too real. The skulls aren’t plastic But frames that once held flesh you kissed. We smile anyway. We put on clown makeup, or sew ears and a tail And try to keep our little ghouls Unbloodied and sweet Just one more year. |
Excellent.
Really really excellent. (Except "chill wind blows" ... sounds kind of familiar, sort of thing that is said a bit too often. No suggestions though). |
October in the Office
All afternoon The trees have been burning In a bright blue sky, And I have been sitting here Imprisoned Behind wired windows. The strip lighting hums Soporifically. And I have been thinking About sex All afternoon. |
I loved both of those poems.
Juniper, that was stunning. I really like the way the mood drops in the second stanza. The first stanza is full of activity and agency, the second is more passive and full of imposed reflection. Lovely. Also the progression from reflections on children to reflections on people lost, echoes the progression from spring/summer to autumn/winter. Sundae, that poem really got under my skin. I loved the payoff. It's very human and real. |
Dark Things
I like the dark things, Halloween things, Gleeful grins and voodoo queens; Tarot decks and green moonbeams. I like the pansy, fearful face and back, Growling up at me from the bushpack Poison mushroom-caps, magick brick-a-brack. I like the room beneath the Tree Cauldrons and witches, three by three- I like the unseen, silly world That just might bite a careless girl. |
The grateful winds
That carried my father's ashes Have left behind the bones. The playthings of ants, next season's Building birds, know nothing of the man. |
Dios de los Muertos
(Days of the Dead) The dead dance lightly for the living. The living dance slowly for the dead. Dry October leaves blow away singularly. Like the years spent with a loved one; leaving sight, then forgotten. The dead dance lightly for the living. The living dance slowly for the dead. The dead remove their masks 3 days a year. In remberance, the living don theirs; unknowingly meeting in genuine form. The dead dance lightly for the living. The living dance slowly for the dead. The dead celebrate the living who have continued. The living with weary eyes; store the old away until even the resonant sounds of the dead have passed on. The dead dance lightly for the living. The living dance slowly for the dead. The dead are living and the living are dead. So let us dance lightly and slowly for everyone; until we know we are together again. (yes it needs a lot of work) ;) |
"A child looking at ruins grows younger but cold and wants to wake to a new name I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring walnut and may leaves the color of shoulders at the end of summer a month that has been to the mountain and become light there the long grass lies pointing uphill even in death for a reason that none of us knows and the wren laughs in the early shade now come again shining glance in your good time naked air late morning my love is for lightness of touch foot feather the day is yet one more yellow leaf and without turning I kiss the light by an old well on the last of the month gathering wild rose hips in the sun." - W. S. Merwin, The Love of October |
Look, a haiku!
October Schmockto- Ber. Let me know when I can Wear a jacket. |
:lol:
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'course, down under, it's the other way around:
Spring is springing springishly Trees are leafing greenishly insects spawn fish-feedingly overgrown, undermown Spring is springing springishly. |
Four arms and four legs
All hairy and brown And gruesomely clawed are holding me down What is this monster? I'm trapped in it's lair Is it the Sasquatch? No, it's Octo-bear! |
Initially eight, elevated to ten
Not appreciation, but vanity of men. |
Good one, Monster!
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Ah Pie, yours made the hairs stand up on my arms.
I try not to think about being in your position, but you carry it with grace. Loved your couplet Monster, clever. (in fact I have loved all the poems on here and feel guilty for not mentioning each one) October Haiku Blue sky in puddle, The wind blows a leaf across. It's Autumn again. |
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