Samhain and Beyond

Audio version at https://soundcloud.com/user-62051685/samhain-and-beyond-revised-mp3

Samhain and Beyond

We stand in hallowed doorways, hand in hand,

hallway light spilling out onto pavement traffic,

small fingers summoned to fumble in buckets,

treats countering tricks, a sea of sanguine smiles.

Nocturnal bat wings flap unobtrusively overhead,

stoical belfries watch stone gargoyles spout rain,

carved pumpkins illuminate porches, fired grins,

rows of moribund Jack o’lanterns on All Hallow’s Eve.

Halloween ghosts in shrouds, float from graves,

witches cast spells, incantations, toil and trouble,

wax candles lit in remembrance by those earth-bound,

prayers quietly whispered for the souls of the dead.

Nos Calan Gaeaf - mordant midnight ceremonies,

Samhain marks time, the ending of Harvests,

Goddess Pomona’s oversight of fruit and seeds

now overtaken by the inexorable onset of winter.

Celtic festivals abound in pagan celebration

where boundaries between worlds are thinnest,

faeries and imps pass over, walk among us,

to dance around fires, stones etched with names.

The ethereal veil between the living and beyond

soon closes once more, seasons transcend life.

Chill winds bring the first snow to remote hills

and a day of reverie, All Saints remembered.

Image is free to use at WikiCommons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain#/media/File:Beltane_Bonfire_on_Cal...