The ‘Eve Approaches

Eve of the ‘Eve

Harried preparation

Porchlights all a-glare

Breath held in expectation

Of whom we hope to scare

 

Pleased anticipation

Is the order of the night.

Waiting on congregation

As capriciousness takes flight

 

Necksore from constant craning

We side eye here and there

Glad that it’s not raining

On the Haunt we want to share

 

Footfalls drawing nearer

Ears prickle at the sound

Rustles of hustled furor

Echoed through the ground

 

What gathering of stitches

represent the costume trends?

Is it a group of witches?

Or super hero friends?

 

Is that a ghostly meeting

In the yard just down the bend?

Or perhaps just soggy sheeting

Drying in the wind

 

Alas it’s just a lone dog

Not werewolves on parade

Just dry leaves scraping sidewalks

And not a zombie raid

 

It’s just the neighbor’s car alarm

And not a banshee shrieking

No haunted house but backdoor

That’s making such a creaking

 

Is that a bubbling witches brew

assailing my senses?

Or just the smoke of burning jack’o’s

sat upon some fences.

 

Pinecones dropped at random

Aren’t spiders on attack

Not thrills but chills in tandem

Cause those shivers down my back

 

Patience sorely tested

Spirits wait for their reprieve

Sure to end up fete and fested

On this eve of Hallows Eve

-a.e. (Revision)

 

The First

Excerpt from

The Call of Fall 

Here now at last

is the turn of the year

when wind is a whisper

that prickles your ear,

and moonrise glows brightly

with merry foretell

and starshine lends glamour

to seasonal spell.

Clouds gather darkly

and fogs rise from earth

and the hammer of rain

is a furious mirth.

A season to savor,

to hold near and dear

of madcap behavior

and mayhem to cheer.

So hang well the buntings

and etch well the gourds,

make sure that your doorways

well welcome the hordes.

Make fast all devices

of fanciful scheme

and wait on the players

of mischievous theme.

Soon now all fey and

their sundry will rise

to caper with us

beneath Hallowe’ens guise.

– A.E.

 

Spirits of the Season

I would very much like to thank Countdown to Halloween for once again hosting a delightful grouping of inspired Halloween blogs, a much needed respite from the flurry of 2020, it can’t have been easy for the new hosts of the Countdown and they’ve earned commendation and appreciation for their efforts 😉

I received more than I gave this year and many thanks and much gratitude to all of the wonderful blogs that rose to occasion and offered excitement, frivolity and magic.

I was standing outside that night, observing the full moon when it appeared from behind dark clouds determined to keep the lights on until 10pm. I listened to music playing in the distance and watched the lights flicker and gut inside the jacks displayed around the yard delighted we’d been able to find some fiendish folly to enjoy – hesitant to extinguish the light against the late hour and the passing of another Eve. I look forward to what beguilements will tempt us and til then….

“Stroll with me beneath the Moon,

for surely, They’ll be coming soon

to share with us the deepening gloom,

upon the Hallowe’en.

Fellow Revelers walk this Night,

as They awake from yearly plight

deprived til now of sweet delight,

upon the Hallowe’en.

Mischievousness the only goal,

for these few hours on parole.

And none but They could be so droll

upon the Hallowe’en.

Sorry am I that They must wait,

upon the Eve to cross the gate.

Alas that is Their yearly Fate,

upon the Hallowe’en.

All too soon the Night will fade,

and All shall pass into the Shade

to wait upon the next parade,

upon the Hallowe’en.

Perhaps you’ll stroll with me once more,

when Gate stands wide and Spirits tour.

No other sight stir’s my hearts core,

upon the Hallowe’en.

~ Moonlit Revel by A.E. (repost from 2016)

A Hundred Eve’s

Woodswalk.jpg

Sometimes it can feel like Halloween is just around the corner, sometimes it can feel like a long walk just begun.  I feel that now as the warm weather beats down and the feeling of a cool breeze is just a memory from a long-ago winter.  Wait.  What is that I see in the distance?  It beckons and guides me.  It flits about in the wilderness.  A lightning bug? Some phosphorescent lichen?  The glowing form of some ancient wood dweller?  Hmm.  I don’t know what it is but I will keep heading towards it.  The light is a wonder, a bedevilment, an enchantment of the senses.  I yearn to be surrounded by such a light and I will gladly endure a hundred eves to get to where it awaits me.  I will wait for you there.

 

Image – Artist unknown.

Madcap & Mayhem

Rogers Gardens, located in Corona Del Mar, California has never failed to captivate and enthrall with their stunning displays of thematic design.  This year will prove that if this pic is anything to go by, with the tagline noted I am sure we all know what to expect, but will certainly be surprised by what we find nevertheless.

Halloween-Boutique-1-2

“We’re All Mad Here!”

This will be my seventh year visiting the Gardens for their annual Halloween Boutique opening and I look forward to what I am certain will be a not-to-be-forgotten step through the looking glass.

Will I see you there?  9:00 am on Friday, August 30th, 2019

Click pic for site and event information.

 

 

Eve of the ‘Eve

wip__homecoming_by_madlittleclown-d6tgmct

 

Harried preparation

Porchlights all a-glare

Breath held in expectation

Of whom we hope to scare

 

Necksore from constant craning

We side eye here and there

Glad that it’s not raining

On the Haunt we want to share

 

Footfalls drawing nearer

Ears prickle at the sound

Rustles of hustled furor

Echoed through the ground

 

What gathering of stitches

represent the costume trends?

Is it a group of witches,

or super hero friends?

 

Alas it’s just a lone dog

Not werewolves on parade

Just leaves scraping sidewalks

And not a zombie raid

 

Cones tumbling at random

Aren’t spiders on attack

Not thrills but chills in tandem

Cause those shivers down my back

 

Pleased anticipation

Is the order of the night.

Waiting on congregation

As capriciousness takes flight

 

Patience sorely tested

Spirits wait for their reprieve

Sure to end up fete and fested

On this eve of Hallows Eve

– by A.E.

Minutes til Midnight

IMG_0362

I am watching my clock countdown the minutes until this 31st dwindles down to moments and memories.  There were a few memorable quirks to the day and the evening, I hope you can all say the same.  As the tomb shuts on this Hallow’s Eve, I draw a final breath of cinnamon stick candle wafting up from the scorched insides of gutted gourds, I gather the crinkled remains of candy skins in their bright coverings shriveled and torn, destined for the recycle bin, and take a long last look up and down the street as porch lights dim, jackos darken and light shows blink and die.  I sigh, shrug my shoulders, turn and close the door behind me.  The house goes dark and here I am at the keyboard…already thinking about Halloween 2018 – I wonder what that escapade will reveal?  So much to plan and plot and ply, as the season passes by…so quickly, much too quickly this year.  Thanks to all of you who stopped to look around this blog, more thanks to Countdown to Halloween for highlighting another great batch of blogs this year, always so much fun to see what others are up to.  I will poke through the leftover candy and ponder…mmmmm….Junior Mints! Rest In Peace Halloween 2017.  I will remember you fondly.

 

 

 

A Trick of the Eye, a Treat for the Soul

IMG_0331

For those of you awed by the odd…Haunters everywhere, a good night!

Whispered words of patience, tickling my ear

The summer crawl, the wait for fall

That highlight of the year

 

random scribbled drawings, and mundane seeming lists

will help devise a dark surprise

a Hallows Evening tryst

 

long preoccupation upon a nightmare scene

as yard or lot like canvas taut

transformed by grisly theme

 

silently I labor, and daily it unfolds

all to create fright filled landscape

the Haunters story told

 

months in preparation, at last the visions done

the lights the fog the folks agog

a play for old and young

 

hordes dwindle slowly with anticipation sated

I’m left with thoughts of greater plots

annually fated

 

I wouldn’t change a moment, or alter inclination

I’ll persevere, each hallowed year

In this haunters occupation.

Revise by A.E., September 2017