on 13Oct2021December 11, 2021

Halloween Horror: “The Hound” By H.P. Lovecraft

In my tortured ears there sounds unceasingly a nightmare whirring and flapping, and a faint, distant baying as of some gigantic hound. It is not dream—it is not, I fear, even madness—for too much has already happened to give me these merciful doubts. St. John is a mangled corpse; I alone know why, and such is my knowledge that I am about to blow out my brains for fear I shall be mangled in the same way. Down unlit and illimitable corridors of eldritch phantasy sweeps the black, shapeless Nemesis that drives me to self-annihilation.–H.P. Lovecraft

on 13Oct2021October 13, 2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 12: “The Witch” By Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

The cutting wind is a cruel foe.
I dare not stand in the blast.
My hands are stone, and my voice a groan,
And the worst of death is past.
I am but a little maiden still,
My little white feet are sore.
Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door!–Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

on 11Oct2021October 12, 2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 11: “The Valley of Unrest” By Edgar Allan Poe

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley’s restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless—
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.
Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees
That palpitate like the chill seas
Around the misty Hebrides!–Edgar Allan Poe

on 11Oct2021October 11, 2021

“Ligeia” Edgar Allan Poe’s Vampire Classic

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

I CANNOT, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia. Long years have since elapsed, and my memory is feeble through much suffering. –Edgar Allan Poe

on 10Oct202110Oct2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 10: “Solomon Kane’s Homecoming” By Robert E. Howard

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

The white gulls wheeled above the cliffs, the air was slashed with foam,
The long tides moaned along the strand when Solomon Kane came home.
He walked in silence strange and dazed through the little Devon town,
His gaze, like a ghost’s come back to life, roamed up the streets and down.–Robert E. Howard

on 09Oct2021October 10, 2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 9: “The Conqueror Worm” By Edgar Allan Poe

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

But see, amid the mimic rout,
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.–Edgar Allan Poe

on 09Oct2021October 10, 2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 8: “Nemesis” By H. P. Lovecraft

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

Thro’ the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
Past the wan-moon’d abysses of night,
I have liv’d o’er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.–H.P. Lovecraft

on 08Oct202108Oct2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 7: “The Shadow on the Stone” By Thomas Hardy

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

I thought her behind my back,
Yea, her I long had learned to lack,
And I said: ‘I am sure you are standing behind me,
Though how do you get into this old track?’
And there was no sound but the fall of a leaf
As a sad response; and to keep down grief
I would not turn my head to discover
That there was nothing in my belief.
–Thomas Hardy (The Shadow on the Stone)

on 07Oct202107Oct2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 6: “The Owl” By Jeffrey LeBlanc

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

And freezing, the Owl never leaving, still is staring, still is staring
Perched upon Great Pan’s limbs just above my swamp shore;
Perched, twisted head, and stares as the dead to distant Stygian moors,
His Erebus eyes, become gilded fireflies, flickering to flame seething, possibly dreaming,
Whilst leprous moon overhead wakes the forgotten dead in shadows before;
And as I lie waiting my flickering shadow anticipating those ghostly shadows before
Cackles the Owl “Katina” evermore!”–Jeffrey LeBlanc

on 05Oct2021October 5, 2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 5: “The Song of the Bats” By Robert E. Howard

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

“We were kings of old!” they chanted,
“Rulers of a world enchanted;
“Every nation of creation
“Owned our lordship over men.
“Diadems of power crowned us,
“Then rose Solomon to confound us,
“In the form of beasts he bound us,
“So our rule was broken then.”–Robert E. Howard

on 03Oct202103Oct2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 3: “The Haunted Oak” By Paul Laurence Dunbar

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

And never more shall leaves come forth
On the bough that bears the ban;
I am burned with dread, I am dried and dead,
From the curse of a guiltless man.

on 02Oct202102Oct2021

The Best Halloween Poems–Episode 2: “Ghost House” By Robert Frost

by Jeffrey LeBlanc

I dwell with a strangely aching heart
In that vanished abode there far apart
On that disused and forgotten road
That has no dust-bath now for the toad.
Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart;