Almanac Poetry: All Hallows’ Eve
Photo by stockcake.com moonlit-cemetery-
All Hallows’ Eve
Broody night.
Above a silent graveyard,
a crescent moon in a sky
pricked with lonely stars.
Headstones and monuments,
weathered, age-old,
spread into the distance.
Fumy mists swirl in the tombs,
rise to the air
become ghosts, link up,
ululate and dance
a hypnotic, circular ballet
– but soon they have vanished
back to grave-bound quietude.
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Of course it’s also Reformation Day.
Yes, JTH, that an interesting parallel. I recall you mentioning this at some past time. You may be interested in this highly interesting book – Manifestations of Discontent in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation, by Gerard Strauss (1971). I did have this book somewhere in my library but would need to look long and hard to find it now. Google Books encapsulates this book well: ‘An unusual anthology of material in translation … Strauss has assembled 35 documents of widely differing nature in order to illustrate a single topic, the uneasy state of Germany in the 15th and early 16th centuries, the period leading up to, and including, the beginnings of the Lutheran Reformation. It is a complex tale of grievances against the Papacy, social unrest, economic exploitation in various forms, imperial weakness, and wounded national pride.’
*Typo – the opening sentence above should read, of course: ‘Yes, JTH, that’s an interesting parallel…’ *
One of the most striking aspects of the book mentioned (from memory) is that the documents assembled in it are all from the 15th and 16th centuries, which gives us an excellent picture of the mood for change in this era.
Excellent poem KD!
I have little interest or time for Halloween except that during Dylan’s 31 October 1964 Philharmonic Hall, NY concert he includes the line: ‘It’s Halloween. I’m wearing my Bob Dylan mask. I’m masquerading.’
I have also been very impressed with the 2021 Russell Morris/Rick Springfield collaboration ‘Jack Chrome & The Darkness Waltz’ album which looks at Mexico’s ‘Day Of The Dead’ festival (i.e. usually celebrated on 1 or 2 November each year) in a spiritual/respectful manner.
Many thanks for your appreciation of the poem, Karl. I find Halloween an interesting phenomenon in various ways (each to their own, of course) – its origins and the nature of its long history in religious ( and broadly ritual ) terms are my main areas.of interest.
Re Bob and Halloween, see my most recent response to you in connection with the kings / queens theme.
I have some knowledge of the Morris / Springfield collaboration, too – though I need to go back and listen to it again.