The Great Pumpkin Ball

For your enjoyment, here are a few of the participants at this year's Great Pumpkin Ball at the Montreal Botanical Gardens.

Happy, Sweet, Spooky Halloween!

Thinking of Poe, in October

what more apt than to think
of the gloomy house of Usher
about to fall
when the thunder rolled through the door
earthquake more than thunder
there was no tapping at the door
only a dismal feeling tapping at my heart
that made me wonder
if something had stirred in the air
or in the ground
or maybe it was just the thunder
but I opened the door –

Night flew inside

I have no bust of Pallas
only this deserted table of decay
where we once
sat together
and a red masque
and the extinguished candles of my soul

so that’s where I sat with the Night
and that’s where we sit
for evermore

The Magic of Lanterns

Every October of this blog I have written and posted here two or three Halloween pieces - poems and little stories that some of you have read.

I don’t feel like doing it this year. This is partly because I’m reluctant to take away from the little time and energy I have for my novel. Most of all, though, it is a consequence of what happened to Rick Moore, whose story was shamelessly stolen. And his was in a published anthology...

So, although it makes me happy to know that good people, like my blog friends, are reading my work here, I’m appalled at the thought that others might have vile intentions with it... What has been posted stays... but with a bad aftertaste... For they too are my children, aren’t they? I’d hate to know that somewhere they’re treated badly...

However, I must honour the season, for I love it. Thus, I give you some pictures I took on Sunday in the Montreal Botanical Gardens.

The Chinese Garden was alight with the magic of lanterns... This year’s theme was Like a Painting, inspired by a traditional Chinese painting, Qing Ming Shang He Tu. An artist from the Song Dynasty painted it in 1127 on a 5.28-metre silk scroll. It depicts the lives of the inhabitants of the city of Bianjing on the day of the Qing Ming festival, when the Chinese honour their ancestors.

And while we stroll among the lanterns, we can always think of some traditional Chinese ghost stories...