Halloweensie Contest!
Amazingly, I have managed to enter yet another of Susanna Hill’s contests — that’s two in one year! This time it’s the Halloweensie contest, with these guidelines:
- no more than 100 words
- the words bat, witch, and trick or treat must appear in the story or poem
- the entry must appeal to kids
- there will be prizes (okay, that’s not a guideline but…THERE WILL BE PRIZES!)
So here is my 95-word entry. Be sure to check out the other spooky delights right here at Susanna’s place. Or better yet, join in the fun!
’round the moonlit town
‘Twas a frightful Halloween night
when witches gather at the cauldron
and ghostly ghoulies, white and bald, run
’round the moonlit town.
‘Twas eight when Eddy swooped down low
to hunt among the bats and wizards–
a vulture with a taste for gizzards,
wearing night’s black gown.
‘Twas ten when Eddy winged back home,
his trick-or-treat bag overflowing,
and there met brother Grover, glowing
in his kingly crown.
‘Twas midnight when the brothers two,
so sweetly sick and sticky-grinning
laid aside their beak and crown
and dreamed of ghostly ghoulies spinning
‘round the moonlit town.
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Gave me the shivers! Shouldn’t have read it out loud! Terrific – esp. like the phrase ‘sticky-grinning’, and the images of moon-lit ghoulie heads running ’round the town!
Excellent, Renee! You captured the trick-or-treat experience perfectly! Perfectly!
I loved Jabberwocky for the 5th time!!!! I know it won’t be my last 🙂 And, I’m looking forward to Friday!
Hi, Renee. Love your poem. Perfect for today 🙂 And good luck in the contest. Prizes are quite a motivation sometimes, aren’t they? Happy Halloween!
Oooooh! I love the hourly structure of this. And “so sweetly sick and sticky-grinning” is fantastic! You do creepy very well, my lady! BOO! a.
I’ve never seen a vulture in a halloween poem, this is great!
This is my favorite of you reading, Renee. It sounds fabulous. My favorite words last time were snicker snack and galumping but this time i noticed whiffling. I really want to use that in a poem. Bravo!
I LOVE this poetic format, Renée! And your reading was perfect, as always!
It’s kind of a weird rhyme scheme, isn’t it? I didn’t mean for it to come out this way, but cauldron and bald run came together one after the other, so I just followed along.
Ooh, I especially love
wearing night’s black gown.
It makes me look at the word “nightgown” differently forevermore!
Ooh! Spooky! So delightfully creepy! I’m so glad you were able to find time to write up an entry! Thanks for joining the Halloween fun 🙂
Ooooh…creepy good, Renee! I loved it. It captivated me to the end. Nice work!
Jabberwocky is one of my favorites, especially the way you read it! You are a poem writing genius, I love this one.
Oh! I picked up a copy of Lizard Lou and we’ve been enjoying it very much!
Aw, yay! Thanks for getting Lizard Lou – I love thinking of him up there with your boys in Maine! 🙂
Your entry has a spooky, tip-toey feel to it. Happy Halloween!
Fantastic romp round the town . . . especially like “sticky grinning.”
Frightfully delicious!
I especially love,
“a vulture with a taste for gizzards,
wearing night’s black gown”
Can’t wait to see what you’ve been conjuring up for Friday…
Mwaahahahahaaaa… .
Renee, I love your rhyme scheme and the way you have built this up. Sounds a little Poe-ish to me? Shivery and delightful! Plus, cauldron and bald run? You know no one’s ever made that rhyme before! 😉 Great entry!
Tee-hee – it was the first thing that popped into my head so I just went with it.
Oh I am officially creeped out. The little high alert hairs on the back of my neck are prickling!
Stunning word-crafting Renee. Bravo! Encore!
Thank you, ghouls and goblins! This was a tough little contest, I must say. That Susanna is a real task master!
(But she got me to stop for half an hour and write a poem, so I guess she’s not all that bad.) 🙂
I like this poem/story. My favorite line is “so sweetly sick and sticky-grinning” – this pretty much sums up a night of trick or treating 🙂
This is pure genius, Renee… absolutely loved it! Brrr… (is there a draft in here?!)
I really want to see a video of you reciting your ghoulish delight, Renee! I like the ins and outs of your linebreaks! When my 3rd graders began to learn Jabberwocky by heart, they did not use your spooky, serious style and I would love to send you a video of them. Their voices and actions give the sense of a proud little boy slaying the dragon and receiving praise from an equally proud papa!!! It would be interesting to use them to talk to kids about differences in interpretation and tone and mood etc. One thing that amazed me was how easily my kids learned the poem. It literally took me a few years (I did not study it, just listened to it), but have learned it myself. Learning poems by heart is easy and worth it. You really can carry them with you that way!!! On another note I just spoke at a conference and included your site in my bibiliography, gave Poetry Friday Anthology as a door prize to 6 lucky teachers (thanks to generous Janet Wong) and touted the Poetry Friday bloggers, especially Amy LV’s Poem Farm. Love this community and again thanks to Heidi from My Juicy Universe for sending me this way. My blog is coming soon.
Janet, by all means send a video of your 3rd graders! I would love to see it. That’s what’s so great about reading and performing poetry – everyone has his own interpretation. And you’re right – what a great lesson that would be for kids.
Oddly, it was also really easy for me to memorize “Jabberwocky” and I still remember it, but I could not for the life of me memorize “Moo-Cow-Moo.” Weird how that works.
Wow, thanks so much for including NWR in the bibliography – that is a HUGE help (and compliment). Any help I can get to spread the word about the site to teachers is greatly appreciated. And The Poem Farm is a treasure indeed! Can’t wait to see your blog, too.
I always find your poems such a treat. We had some sticky grins at our house, but no shivers.
Ooooh shivers! You are such a clever and talented ghoulie! This may be my favorite poem of yours so far. LOVE it!
Great poem! Can’t wait ’till Friday! 🙂
Wow, Renee! You always come up with great poetry. Eddy is quite the ghoul.
Renee…congratulations on a super entry!!!! Great meter and words…at first it made me think of ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allen Poe. Very compelling…I love it. 🙂
I loved the phrase “sticky grinning.” That really describes the post-Halloween scene perfectly (at least at my house).
My, how I enjoyed this! The last stanza__so perfect.
I just like the way my lips feel saying Round the Moonlit Town – delightful vowel sounds.