Best All Saints Poems
From the everyday hubbub I have often fled
to share the stillness enjoyed by the dead.
Over chimes that mark the quarter and the hour
noisy Crows play hide and seek around the tower.
Cross beneath the arch and through the gate
to those here bearing witness to our fate.
Marked by gently listing weathered stone
they lie here all together, all alone.
Through village history I slowly pass
borne on the ebb and flow of unmown grass.
Sarah Smith, taken in eighteen thirty-one
her past just twelve years old, her future gone.
Another Sarah, Eames, near the main porch,
each facet of her tomb topped by a torch.
In a corner by the hedge with beard of moss
a solitary ornate Celtic cross.
Reverend Ogle, keeper once of Church and grounds
now waiting for the final trumpet's sound.
Another cross, lain flat with hole for flowers
rests darkly in the shadow of the tower.
Wind and weather from it's face the name long taken
unknown, but unto God is unforsaken.
Inside the Church in amber candleglow
stand the Alabaster Angels- and they know.
Respectfully I pick my way back to the gate
till next time, and eternity, they wait.
One last glance back, then time to move along,
All Saints calls out the hour
the Crows are gone
Walking down to cemetery
with their pretty chrysanthemums,
the people talk their way to graves.
They hang out, if they want, all day.
With their pretty chrysanthemums,
they do make a pleasant picture -
one for Selfies if they have brought
cell phones up to cemetery.
The people talk their way to graves,
but they don't have to be sad words.
A jolly time - convivial -
cemetery jaunt, if you will.
They hang out, if they want, all day,
and headstones will be polished clear.
Lovely backdrop for the flowers!
(My small survey of All Saints' Day.)
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10/13/2015
Contest - Shall We Retourne
Sponsor - Debbie Guzzi
A win
Today’s feast is All Saints day.
Do you have any friends there
With whom you’d like to pray?
Ask them to say one for you.
They will, you know.
They always do.
They know where we’re at .
They’ve been there too.
They’d love to give us a hand
And guide our way through.
Today’s feast is All Saints Day.
Got one batting for you?
No more labeled by one's admission
Once a man's earthly life ends in
The place waiting for some negotiation
The creator there accepts All Saints
No one would be rejected in the end
No matter the stay by willing or causal
His mercy still grant a chance for retreat
All saints will then be free back to their kin
I reckon death should name a one-way trip
Departure has to be in the east or west horizon
As sun-rise wakens eyes to look and propagate
While sun-set asks the others back to sing
This All Saints Sunday, names were read,
The newly born, the lately dead,
The names of those who were baptized,
The names of those lives finalized.
God's blessings stamped on everyone,
Lives that are gone, lives just begun.
We must aspire to live our lives
As more than mothers, fathers, wives,
So that each life when lived and done
Has been another saintly one.
On All Saints Day, our souls can stand
And join up with the All Saints Band.
For Brian's "Faith contest"
Won HM in contest
"Alas, ancient Celtic festival of Samhain;
When people would light bonfires;
And wear costumes to ward off ghosts,
Yon fearsome hosts;
Halloween oh! Hallowe'en,
Also known as All halloween,
All Hallows' Eve,
All Saints' Eve,
Celebration observed in several countries
On 31 October
The eve of the Western Christian feast,
Of All Hallows' Day
Dates Thursday, October 31, of each month Trending
Significance First day of Allhallowtide seems to never ending
Observances Church services, prayer, fasting, and vigil
Observed by Western Christians and many non-Christians around the world
Origin Samhain
Dating back to European traditions,
Halloween originated from the ancient Gaelic festival,
a day to celebrate the end of the harvest season
It’s “summer's end”. Harvest holds celebrate the coming back of the dead?
... The word itself
is a Scottish
Term for All Hallows Eve - basically,
The evening before All Saints' Day.
Celebrated in America?
According to tradition, the spirits of the dead
Able to come back to life
To harm people and crops in the physical world
America tell the real meaning to the children…"
BOO...
10/30/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2019©
Misty shadowed hosts
ghastly wisps of fortunes past
moonlight from the dead...
Halloween Senryu Contest
Sponsored by Laura Loo
10/10/2017
There was a scary witch from McTeer
Who said she would skip Halloween this year
The world was scared aplenty
From this year twenty twenty
And that they'd probably run out of fear
10-7-20
Syllables :10-10-7-7-10
Contest: Halloween Inspired Limerick
Sponsor : Tania Kitchin
I see you have eaten my All Saints food
And destroyed my celebrating mood
We were to acknowledge all the dead
I may add you to that list instead
We were to bless the dead and martyrs
And now I have no food for starters
Then since you ate it all in a rave
I will go quickly and start your grave
While I dig just sit here and ponder
How it feels for your soul to wander
For I will return into the night
And take you there before daylight
Think of candy that belonged to me
And then how the dead could have felt free
You must follow these Saints in their way
I will see you then on All Saints Day
10-15-19
Contest:If I Were Your Brother
Sponsor:Bobby May
Acolytes light the candles
As the pastor reads each name
For newly dead or new baptized,
The candle size the same.
I know some faces watching
Are glistening with tears.
For newly born or just departed,
There's a span of a hundred years.
The youngest saint with a lit candle
Has a life just now begun.
The eldest in the longer line
Died with years one hundred one.
There are lights for lives beginning,
The innocents just come aboard
And lights for friends and loved ones
We've relinquished to the Lord.
We look fondly at each other,
These loved friends we hold so dear.
We can't know who's name will be there
When the list is read next year.
By: Joyce Johnson
I am the worst judge of my own poetry so I just took a stab at it.
How lovely is the dwelling place
Where saints and blessed ones rest in grace
Peace, joy and love overflowing
While we on earth here are groaning
Each one wearing a crown of glory
For vices conquered, each one has a story
Their faces shining, resplendently glowing
With angels guiding us in our following
Their fervent prayers sprinkled with incense
Reaching the Holy Throne in our defense
Their earthly sacrifice and pains endured
Our souls we surrender to them to cure
Blessed ones we honor thee on this day
Shining lights of heaven carve out our way
Soon may our paths be entwined in one
As the world we shun and upwards run
Dia De Los Santos
On all Saints Day I’m impressed to see
Old Ford’s, cherry bombs and Chevy’s
In support of Dia De Los Santos
Together peacefully ever so tighter
Meet the Generation X Lowrider
Dancing near the fire of the candles burning
She finds the eyes of the Lord looking in her
Angels all surround the heavenly glowing
Where the lamb and the champion as one confer
They all sing and bless her soul within her heart
Wishing that she will never go and depart
Heaven erupts with joy at her simple glance
All the saints lure her to come in the entrance
Russell Sivey
The dead-end street in front of the house
is still, and I notice leaves have fallen.
The roommate said last night no one
came here for trick or treating
and now a cold wind blows.
I just moved in here yesterday.
I’m starting my life again.
A cold wind blows and I go out.
Last night a stranger and I
drank together. She said
no one knows you like your mother.
The lady set down her drink and asked
where has the year gone.
Where has the year gone?
My mom’s gone.
My dad’s gone,
I think tonight
I’ll call my cousin.
The street in front is quiet.
rolled up newspapers are stacked
on the front porch
of the house next door.
A ravine lies on the east side
where the road ends.
Music plays downstairs
and a singer’s voice drones
to the rhythm of a drum machine
then falls silent.
A door slams shut.
The most recent poem I write
is a lost conversation.
All my past loves and all who died—
their shadows dance on the wall
as the sun looks through my window.
I’ll grab a bite for breakfast
after stepping out the door.
I haven’t met the neighbors,
not yet.
It’s true that we are looking
for someone, it’s true.
A fallen leaf dances across the yard
and my back aches.
A story stirring inside me
lives beyond its time.
Perhaps, as time goes by, I will achieve
my wishes, three of them, to be precise.
Since we have met on chilly All Saints' Eve,
my first one is a heart as cold as ice.
The second is a fire in my loins
as burning as the thirst I cannot slake.
Die, fire! I don't want to toss the coins,
the words, the hints, the meanings. The mistake
we've made is love I'm falling in. Alas,
I'm falling in but I'm not fallen yet.
By-by, I'll see you later, a seichas
prishla pora zakanchivat sonet*.
My third wish is as warm as friendly kiss.
Please, do not take this poetry amiss.
*(rus.) and now it's time to finish the sonnet.
18.04.2019