'Halloween', Robert Burns (1785).

I like the following annotation the #BBC has appended to Burns's poem, the opening line of which is:

"American style 'trick or treat' juvenile extortion rackets have largely replaced Scottish guising...."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/halloween/ #halloween #halloween2025 #guising #poetry #Burns

Leave me to
My violent love.
I condemn you
To a comfortable
Life.

The Enablers (Limerick)
http://www.madkane.com/madness/2025/10/31/the-enablers-limerick/

when his hands are on you
they're not full of you
but full of owning
and that possession
that drives him
will not be satisfied
with what he can grasp
which is not to say
that there isn't value
to be taken from him in turn

#SmallPoems #Poetry #Writing
#MastoPrompt 31 October 2025 - avarice.

Everyone's invited to the Halloween party. #blog #poetry #writing #writingcommunity #sifaswriting

https://e8thespresso.blogspot.com/2025/10/poem-that-one-night-of-year/

https://sifasevenwriting.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/poem-that-one-night-of-the-year/

All the days
Lined up
Against
The wall,
As sacrifice
Blindfolded
Before the
Firing line,
Last rites
Read.
Silence as
Witness,
The dead
Stay dead
No matter
How we
Beg.

A life of terror and pain, feels naught but in vain.

his eyes went
very strange
discomposed

snorting as
the dybbuk
wandered in

then he stood
and strode off
who knows where

https://xxyxxy.com

#Music #Lyrics #Poetry #SkyTunes #SkyMusic #MusicSky #BlueskyTunes #BlueskyMusic #Vinyl (take your pick) The Wreck of the Old 47 by Cliff Lake cliffsongs.substack.com/p/the-wreck-... @cliffsongs.bsky.social

Chapter

For the final time
I switch off the light, and leave
memories to fade.

© Simon J Ashcroft, 2025

But gin the auld fowks’ tales are richt
An’ ghaists come hame on Hallow nicht,
O freend o’ freends! what wad I gie
To feel ye rax yer hand to me
Atween the dark an’ caun’le-licht?

—Violet Jacob, “Hallowe’en”
first published in COUNTRY LIFE, 1920

Jacob’s only son, Harry, was killed at the Somme in 1916

The inescapable fact of life
that there is something.

Something it's like to be you,
something you're noticing and drawn to.

Sometimes it's enough
just to be with this
to enjoy and
love it.

"I will make this world of my devising
Out of a dream in my lonely mind.
I shall find the crystal of peace, – above me
Stars I shall find."

#TodaysPoem #poetry @poetry
There Will Be Rest by Sara Teasdale (1933) https://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/st-rest.htm & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrGKj5Zw2WQ

Breakfast
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

We ate our breakfast lying on our backs,
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
I bet a rasher to a loaf of bread
That Hull United would beat Halifax
When Jimmy Strainthorpe played full-back instead
Of Billy Bradford. Ginger raised his head
And cursed, and took the bet; and dropped back dead.
We ate our breakfast lying on our backs,
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
… #poetry #warpoetry #history #literature #remembrance
https://war-poetry.com/wilfrid-wilson-gibson-breakfast/"

A boannie nicht for castin kale:
a fat mön vaegin owre Sannis,
a hale gadderie o laads an lasses…

—Christine De Luca, “Hallowe’en Hansel”
published in WAST WI DA VALKYRIES

Listen to Christine reading her poems online here

https://www.christinedeluca.co.uk/pages/wast_wi_da_valkyries

Entering Life's Autumn

My contribution to this week's:
#FromOneLine 395 - 'Last night I saw'
#BornBattleReady - #corporeal
#BlueSkyArtShow - #Autumn
#inkMine - destroy, demolish, spite, void, simple, monster

---
#WritingCommunity #poetry
#KBFPhotography #MobilePhonePhotography #Photography

@writingcommunity @poetry @photography

In your proud lap I lay my head
While butterflies flit ‘round our bed
And all around are petals spread.
O Summer’s story tell!

The leaves now turn to red and gold
And we curl up against the cold...
https://medium.com/prismnpen/summers-story-a-love-song-for-summer-from-autumn-6253f2167a1b?sk=dd1a2ac9fc5c61b68db08a16ee9706bc

I Don't Fight Demons

My contribution to this week's:
#FromOneLine 395 - 'Last night I saw'
#BornBattleReady - #corporeal
#BlueSkyArtShow - #Autumn
#inkMine - destroy, demolish, spite, void, simple, monster

---
#WritingCommunity #poetry
#KBFPhotography #MobilePhonePhotography #Photography
#Halloween #Samhain #Winter