Evening shimmers wet with Autumn rain
It's sheen reflectors, mirrors, eyes

Of cavorting shadows amongst the fey
Like city tinsil this Samhain night,

Oh how lovely colors celebrate
With ghostly kin & youthful lights...

With circus-painted skins and facade
Of candied ghoulish grins,

How sweet & innocent the haunted highs
Infects each home, "trick'r'treat" of hymns.

Laughter like All's been forgiven,
All seems right, again...

Though hidden faces -  forgotten sins,
Speak sie la vie this holiday,

With carved pumpkins, witches' cry,
Screams are as illusion as the fright,

This Samhain evening’s tide .

It's all babes and monsters ball
This hallowed eve
This Samhain night

Tra la li, tra la lay
Then tomorrow is Hop tu naa...
The days after for all our saints...

Come the winter will be white,
As the ghosts this Samhain night.

Evening shimmers wet with Autumn rain
It's sheen reflectors, mirrors, eyes

Of cavorting shadows amongst the fey
Like city tinsil this Samhain night,

Oh how lovely colors celebrate
With ghostly kin & youthful lights...

With cirque painted skins and facade
Of candied ghoulish grins,

How sweet & innocent the haunted highs
Infects each home, "trick'r'treat" of hymns.

Laughter like All's been forgiven,
All seems right, again...

Though hidden faces -  forgotten sins,
Speak sie la vie this holiday,

With carved pumpkins, witches' cry,
Screams are as illusion as the fright,

This Samhain even tide .

It's all babes and monsters ball
This hallowed eve
This Samhain night

Tra la li, tra la lay
Then tomorrow is Hop tu naa...
The days after for all our saints...

Come the winter will be white,
As the ghosts this Samhain night.

Evening shimmers wet with Autumn rain
It's sheen reflectors, mirrors, eyes

Of cavorting shadows amongst the fey
Like city tinsil this Samhain night,

Oh how lovely colors celebrate
With ghostly kin & youthful lights...

With cirque painted skins and facade
Of candied ghoulish grins,

How sweet & innocent the haunted highs
Infects each home, "trick'r'treat" of hymns.

Laughter like All's been forgiven,
All seems right, again...

Though hidden faces -  forgotten sins,
Speak sie la vie this holiday,

With carved pumpkins, witches' cry,
Screams are as illusion as the fright,

This Samhain even tide .

It's all babes and monsters ball
This hallowed eve
This Samhain night

Tra la li, tra la lay
Then tomorrow is Hop tu naa...
The days after for all our saints...

Come the winter will be white,
As the ghosts this Samhain night.

Dear ancestors hear my voice
On this Samhain eve I have a
Message for you
Be sure I have found my love
A love that releases me
The version of me you may not know
The one that I have became
It is true that this love has grown
Grown into a perfect and lasting covenant
Love that is rare and true
She is the embodiment of me in a
Special and all seeing person
She has given me sight to see the world in its glory
The Vision of which I have never known
She has given me heart to carry on when all seems lost
Courage to face each day
The tenacity to make the most of my life and of hers
The soul that we share is complete in the extreme
It is extreme as it is perfect and as one
She gives me more than this more than I could ever
Ever ever say.
I found her just six years ago
She came to me in a rush of circumstance
Something unexpected and yet hoped for
I can say much of this but all I need to say
Is that I love her so dearly it hurts
It hurts because life itself is so fragile.
I hold this love in my hand and cherish it
Cherish this day as we walk together into our
Seventh year through the mist and veil
Of Samhain, oh Samhain,
This is our time  

Max Hale
Dedicted to my Jan on the anniversary of our meeting six years ago.

Welcome, Samhain, the Festival Of The Dead
The year draws to a close and we look to the New Year ahead
With the veil at its thinnest, spirits freely roam
Its time once more to welcome your Ancestors home


Listen to their messages and take note of their advice
For they know things we cannot, except at a price
Raise a glass in their honour, then bid them farewell
Though they never really leave us, and this we know well


Tomorrow brings a new day, though the Dark Lord slumbers on
The New Year has begun, let your voice raise in song
Set out your hopes and desires, for it’s a time to look ahead
Ask the Blessings of the Ancients as on your path you tread


May the coming year be fruitful, may you prosper and grow
For you’re a walker of the Old Ways and this is what we know
We are children of the Ancients and so we are doubly blessed
For we are the chosen ones, each on our own Sacred Quest.

Blessed Be.


Samhain 2012                                        
Nerwydd Dragonborne

Samhain time

spirits are free

***** and lime

share our company

Smirking at our silliness

smugly knowing we'd scream

if they showed a willingness

to swim in our stream

If there feeling naughty

we'll experience a feeling

something wierd and creepy

our senses left reeling

We'll put it down to atmosphere

or wishful thinking

truth if we knew would cause fear

our hearts sinking

So leave them alone

it's their moment

cause them to groan

and you they'll torment

The smell was gagging her.
She no longer felt the constant agony which was a relief but the smell indicted
A severe infection
Perhaps she would get lucky and cross the veil soon
Her day of execution was coming upon her
She could hear stakes being placed and wagons
Delivering peat, coal, and wood
Oh how she feared the burning
Once as a child she burnt her hand in her father’s smithie
She cried till her mother rubbed a poultice of comfrey upon it
She never forgot the pain of that burn
All  the comfrey in the world was not going ease her pain after tomorrow

She remembered growing up hiding in the hay mound
Watching her father
It fascinated her, turning hot molten metal into something useful
Working the elements her father would say was an honor.
She secretly yearned to do the same but her father said it was ’men’s’ work
So when not in the fields her brothers got to spend time with their father not she

Not that she minded spending time with her grams
Learning the healing arts
Using herbs and precious stones with magical properties
Working the elements but in a more subtle way
But she was more drawn to her fathers work
And look where her grams legacy has gotten her now
If she had been allowed to work with her father and brothers she thought bitterly….

She tried to move and felt an instant stab of pain where her bones had once been
Her right foot was nothing more but dangling rotting flesh
The Malleous Malficarum meant nothing it seemed
The traveling inquisitors did not receive the confession they sought
She refused to confess even under torture
So instead she would burn to purify her soul  
They would get their entertainment
As would her village

She heard moaning coming from the cell next to hers
It was her neighbor old Hatty Beckwith
She had been accused by Ned Higbee of consorting with the devil and killing livestock
The whole village knows Ned wants her land for the water
This was insane
The inquisitors fees for Hatty would come from Hatty’s estate she supposed
She wondered how her father and brothers would manage to pay her fees
She heard the guards talk and say the expenses for torture and burning were great
As were the cost for their food, drink, and their diversions
As if torturing were not enough entertainment

The sound of screaming suddenly pierced her senses
Someone was being pulled on the rack again
She knew that pain too well
Not being able to stand the smell of blood and listen to the screams any longer
She struggled to crawl to the dark corner of the cell
She lost track of time being in the dark for so long
Only seeing slivers of light through the opening of doors
As the guards came and went
But she calculated Samhain would soon arrive
Possibly even this evening

The village would be preparing and celebrating
The ending of the last harvest and the beginning of a new year
Honoring their dead ancestors
Setting a place for them at the table
She wondered if her father and brothers would set a place for her next year
Telling her tale as they have done for her mother and her grandmother before her
About now her brothers would be taking stock of the herds and grains
Deciding which animals to slaughter
Preparing stores of meat, fruits, and vegetables
In order to help them survive the coming winter

A huge bonfire would be lit in the village
And the villagers would extinguish all other fires
Each family lighting their hearth from the common flame
Bonding the families of the village together.
One big happy family she thought with irony
She still knew not who turned her in
But one thing she was sure of and that was fear changed people
Or maybe it only brought out their true selves

She shifted trying to get comfortable and began to drift off into a merciful sleep
When she awoke hours later she sensed a difference in the air
She heard drums keeping time
And she could see and smell old autumn leaves gently swirling in her cell
She thought she saw a gate, opening wide
And from this gate appeared the dark mother in her terrible naked glory

She froze -fear overtaking her
She closed her eyes tightly only to feel a gentle touch
Her mind crossing another’s
And when she found the strength to open her eyes
There stood her mothers mother

Her grandmother’s arms inviting
She stands, pain forgotten
She feels the nights stretching behind the days till
She reaches the darkness where all of her is ancestor
It is who she has been all along
She is ready for this journey, crossing the dark river
Into the country of death

She will join her ancestors and her witch sisters
Breathing freer knowing that her death
Will shed her of her female body
Cleansing her of the sin of being a woman
Who is more than the sum of her part’s
Taking the dark mothers hand, now hearing whispering and laughing
Her grandmother smiles and she sees the moon and stars above her
They cross the veil together, the gate gently closing behind them

She understands clearly now
In Mabs cold womb life will start again
A child of light to begin a new
The wheel continues to spin, the cycle continues
And she will always be a part of it all ~M

Hello old friend
it's time again for flannel shirts
and dead leaves
bitter coffee and cold breezes
jack o' lanterns are our totem
and 4am that knows all our secrets.
its autumn again and the veil is thin
I hope the witching hours Find you well

Black cats race down the street
They all stop and stare where the cross sections meet
Normally you wouldn't care
Normally you wouldn't shiver under their stare
But on this night
With a chill in the air
As the fall leaves rustle under the glare
A full moon hangs with a wicked stare
You hear something on your right
You look but nothing is there
Out the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse
Something dark, you can't see, just feel it's presence
You start to shake
Your mind going wild
The fear tonight you cannot reign
It is Devil's night
It is SAMHAIN!

Black cats race down the street
They all stop and stare where the cross sections meet
Normally you wouldn't care
Normally you wouldn't shiver under their stare
But on this night
With a chill in the air
As the fall leaves rustle under the glare
A full moon hangs with a wicked stare
You hear something on your right
You look but nothing is there
Out the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse
Something dark, you can't see, just feel it's presence
You start to shake
Your mind going wild
The fear tonight you cannot reign
It is Devil's night
It is SAMHAIN!

Nuts falling as psalms,
From storied arms of Hazel tree,
  .  .  .  Blue jays turning leaves.

it is different now. i find

that standing there all day

working.



is fine.



is fine

that i fly solo, that

no one here is looking.



for someone.



who is not here?



bats come early, stay late.



is fine



is samhain



sbm.

It is fall again,
that time of year
when the veil
between realms thins,
and the dead rise from
the depths of their graves,
to roam our world,
and torment the living.
It's the time of year,
when children fear,
the monster in the closet,
and the boogeyman
under the bed.
It's the time of year,
when werewolves howl
at the full moon,
deep within the dark woods.
Fall is here,
and with it comes the time
for the dearly departed
to resurrect,
and share the world
with the living.

Nuts falling as psalms,
From storied arms of Hazel tree,
  .  .  .  Blue jays turning leaves.

Tonight all the spirits come out and dance
Tonight all the beasts jump around and prance
Tonight we join that ancient Celtic trance
From Japan to America to Johannesburg to France

The spirits and fairies walk the earth tonight
As we watch and tell stories to induce fright
As werewolves and zombies come out into the light
And all of the witches shall do as they might

So happy Hallows eve, wherever you are
Be it in a haunted hedge or a ship in the stars
From the days of the first druids to those of flying cars
Let us all, human or not, come out to laugh, sing, and roar

Finger tips, so freshly pricked
The blood, drips so sweet
Dark red, falls and stained
The socks, covering my feet

Finger tips, covered in red
The blood, flows so fast
Dark red, stains the dead
My shirt, torn across my chest

The night has only begun
As the moonlight showers
So does my everlasting fun

Chaotic energy
Demonic Clergy
Sweet sun falls
While spirits rise

Dancing, prancing, gallivanting
Underneath the sweetness of a dark moon
Such a delectable array of freedom, yet it ends so soon

Sun rise, ruins our freedom
Tomorrows day, drags us back
A year, we wait bleeding
My chest, still dripping red

Sun rise, the end of holiday
Tomorrows day, I lay lifeless
A year, we repeat the ritual
My chest, healed by my king

In the graveyard chapel
With the candle wicks nearly extinguished
Was a black dog who guards the grave of his master
Who's bond to this world is relinquished

Old bones sit in the mausoleum near by
Do the dead ever come back to the land of the living?
Sometimes the dog barks at seemingly nothing
But on Samhain when the divide between the dead and living is so thin
The ghosts of the deceased inhabit their homes again

The faint murmurs of voices heard a long time ago
The dog barks and the ghost light glows
People never seem to believe
Deceived by their own scientific nature
But if you stare into the mirror at Samhain
You can see the image of those who have passed

Maybe heaven or hell is not enough for these spirits to fit in?
Long forgotten souls their grave stones unwritten by time
Eroded away like the decaying of time
Youths flower fades into dust...

i.

On this Halloween children art given load's of sugary treat's,
Whilst demon's roam, spirit's unseen and unknown,
Lurk around each abode, across the street;

ii.

Whilst the innocent adolescent's art having the fun of their era
Satan bringeth down the land of the free;
Through "tradition" and terror.

iii.

Not knowing the mask's meaning, the small one's put on,
The babes weareth Satanic horn's, with cutsie adorn;
As the lamented art more than alive, just beyond the dawn.

iv.

As tis this land worship's darkness, not knowing it's own becoming; blindness cometh out on Halloween, the night of false fun and adult strange release, a night to worship the unliving, as whilst they enjoy it not knowing, whom or what they praise is the beast.




©Brandon nagley
©Lonesome poets poetry

dragonflies lie in state
amid faded bones of grass
which keen stiffly
to a summer requiem
carried through the low autumn light
on a rattling train of wind.

A trenchant thought cut through the rest
to jolt me out of this haze (I savour), and
as the noxious redolence of Aetherius left
the fog of Endorphus settled in its stead;
While the mists of the oraculate cast
their insidious shadows upon
my bare chest.

Lughnasadh, Samhain, Imbolc and Beltane shall come to pass!
By harvest, hallows-even, spring and summer will it matter?
Pharmahuasca maelstrom drank the earth.

The veil thins;
I light a candle and wait
for you to come home.