Thoughts on Halloween
THE CIRCLE OF LIFE
Day of the Dead
Día de los Muertos
PART ONE--FATE
Doom-filled clouds, black with night,
Float o’er the moon’s spectral light,
Moonbeam fingers, yellow boned
In brimstone clouds sharply honed
Prod and pierce the misty shrouds
Slashing…slicing through cold black clouds
Spewing bilious beams…from sickly skies,
Striking the earth and there, in gloom-filled darkness die.
Coldly grasped by unearthly lights
Ancient trees reach cloud-bound heights,
Cast sinister shadows, monstrous forms,
Gnarled goblins, wraiths, who mourn,
Warped limbed pall bears attending a wake,
Attesting to misfortune…undeniable fate.
An olden oak oppressed with time
Seen in shadowy sulfurous shine
Cradles, dying, amongst its rooty arms
A bloodied body beset by deadly harms.
The Reaper is coming to harvest a life.
Yellow-boned fingers grasping his scythe
With razor-edged blade, covered with gore
And gathered about, his horrid spore.
Foul decay, in corruption consume
The corpse, inhumed: in its moldy, rotting tomb.
Root-like fingers creep and crawl
Reaching the body’s blood-crusty caul
To prod and pierce necrotic flesh
Entwining the corpse in a living mesh
Invading the cadaver’s trembling breast
Weaving together life and death…
In eternal earth-bound rest.
Bloodthirsty roots invade and seek
Sustenance in tissues, which soon will reek
Coursing through soma, body and brain
Following and filling blood-clotted veins
The body corrupted, sobs a last moan
And grins, open-mouthed, a final root-toothed groan.
PART TWO--HOPE
Hope-filled clouds, white and bright
Float o’er the sun’s morning light
Sunbeam fingers with golden bones
Arrayed in jewels and precious stones
Prod the sky with sapphire light
To fill the heavens, a spectacular sight
As multicolored rays, erase the night
Reaching the earth from crisp blue skies
There to survive in hope-filled eyes.
Ancient trees touch billowy heights
Warmly embraced by nurturing lights
Their majestic shadows cradle life…new born.
Steadfast sentinels of organisms…reborn.
Lofty limbed witnesses, testimony bear
That in death is new life…defeating despair.
An old wise oak wizened with time
Stands stately in beauty in sparkling sunshine
Cradling life amongst its sinuous arms
Caressing newborn flowers of wondrous charm
The beholder observes the flow of life
Staying the fear of the Reaper’s scythe
Its blade sharply edged cannot wound the soul
When linked to the intertwined organic whole
Which blossoms in life and joyously blooms
In fragrant flourishing flowery tombs.
Little fingers caress and crawl
Reaching out to the fragrantly flowered caul
To prod and pierce the fertile earth
Entwining souls in beauty with mirth
Consoling the soul with transcendent rest
Weaving together life and death
The eternal circle nurtured at nature’s breast.
The loom is warped…
WE weave the weft
May our souls…not be…bereft
By the colored yarns we weave
By our choices…we may cleave
The smothering shackles of fickle fate
Need not be…
Our pernicious life-long mate.
Cycle of life…supreme master of our fate
By treasuring the ryme of life's and death's enduring refrain
May fear of the Reaper’s act abate
And so…
I am the captain of my soul…
I am the master of my fate.*
*Last two lines reworded from
“Invictus”
By William Henry Henley
by c j stegman
Where is God?
Where is God today?
Why…He’s at play!!!
For we did pray…”Please help us win our game today”.
And He did come and He did stay
To help us block and help us tackle
And our opponents He did shackle…
God was on our side today…
Where is God today?
Why…He’s at play!!!
For we did pray…”Please help us win our game today.”
And He did come and He did stay
To help us pitch and help us hit
And our opponents He gave a fit
God was on our side today…
Where is God today?
Why…He’s at play!!!
That is why He did not come today…
To save the children
Who could not play
Too starved and weak to lift a ball
Or even lift themselves at all…
Why wasn’t God on their side today?
Where is God today?
Why?…He’s at play!!!
For warring nations each did pray…”Please help us win this war today!”
And He did come and He did stay
To help them fight and help them kill
Till all was death and all was still
And soldiers on the side of “wrong” and soldiers on the side of “right”
By God’s grace they did fight
And none did "win" and all did lose
For His might…we do abuse.