On second thought, though, it had me thinking maybe I should move that jack-o-lantern on my front step to a different spot. So I’ll give the newscasters the credit they deserve. Perhaps they saved what would have been a toasted kid or two on my front steps!

 As your little ones head out for festivities this weekend and into next week for Halloween, it’s good to keep some trusty safety tips in mind to make sure spooky fun doesn’t turn into spooky nightmare.  Here the CDC put together a list for a Safe Halloween. Some of it may have you rolling your eyes for the obviousness, but on second-thought it might have you making some changes that will leave this holiday a treat instead of a trick.

Happy Halloween and Fall Festivities! 

Do you have your copy? I think it will be a great deck to use for Halloween readings.

If you don’t have yours yet, click HERE

We’d also like to share the winning entry from our Halloween poem contest that we had for Llewellyn employees. Congratulations, Chuck!

Halloween Night

by Chuck Lukkason

I think that I shall never see a pumpkin as orange as can be.
So round and true and a stem so hard and green, a perfect Jack-O-Lantern it will make and all the children will scream.
I’ll put a candle in it to light up the night, it will flicker and glow and cause a great fright.
On Halloween Night the kids will come dressed as Dracula, Frankenstein, a Mummy in trauma and there even was scary Obama.
The Monsters came to the door and hollered their “tricks or treat” but not one of them could, perform a great feat.
They just open there bags, they all wanted candy, while there parents stood in the street, they’re all drinking Brandy.
And then came the big kids with their pillow cases streaming, staring at my pumpkin, with their eyes all a gleaming.
For I knew in my hart that it wouldn’t be long, my perfect Jack-O-lantern, soon would be gone.
And at last, I don’t think, I shall ever see, my pumpkin, smashed in the street, so completely.

The End.

Now it is all up to you! Cast a vote for your favorite poem by entering the number next to the poem’s title in the comments field of this blog post. One vote/comment per person.

Please submit your vote no later than Thursday, October 29, 2009, at 4PM CST. The winner will be announced on Friday, October 30, 2009, at 12PM.

#1 – “The Banshee” by Anya Elude

She is lifted up in Moon’s bright light
To fly above the little lives below
To watch the unsuspecting soul
Who ventures into the night

De-sending fast through inky dark
To hunt her prey’s beating heart
And find they have wandered off the path
And take from them that precious spark …

#2 – “They Come” by Andrew Brett

Shadowy figures walk the streets each night,
I see them everywhere,
muffling the embers of their candle light,
stumbling in there own despair,
murmuring in there hollow step,
an ancient tongue of speech,
of life that none of each have kept,
a life just out of reach.

Purposeful and blind
they knock.
Reaching out
the faceless mock.
In the darkness of a moonless night,
walking fearless of there misdirection,
hungry for their own insight,
inward turning,
burning
for their own complexion.

Wicked little shadows walking,
I see them everywhere,
and every night their voiceless talking
fills me with despair.
And I know if I look to see that face
that I’ll know what I’ve always known,
in the blackness of there eyeless place
I’ll find myself alone,
scared, afraid and lonely,
my candle’s light my only
light to show my faceless face.
So here I lie awake
each night, I’ve never slept
a trace.

The lonely shadows never sleep,
they walk the streets each night,
they only sing their dirge and weep
until the mornings light.

Then they put their masks all back
and hide their candle’s light,
shield the world from what they lack
and fear the coming night,
when their little lies are broken
and the moonless night returns;
their sorrow is their only token
to fuel the light that burns.

I’m afraid of them, at least I think,
scared of what they mean.
So every night in bed I shrink
and sleepless lie serene;
lying every night in bed
but not one ounce of sleep,
lying in my secret dread
to lie awake and weep.

Wicked little shadows walking,
I see them everywhere
and every night their voiceless talking
fills me with despair.
The darkness of the light they carry
and the truth they hide behind,
the vagueness of their face is scary,
what they see coz they are blind,
how they knew you in your swaddling clothes,
how they watch you even now,
how you know their hunger for you grows,
though not quite sure just how.

Oh, how they yearn for you, poor child,
like they yearned for me,
how the scent of you has made them wild
as crazed as they can be.
And even though you know they’re blind
as they lash about at night,
you know one day they’ll surely find
you in pit of fright,
and you’ll be theirs as I am,
the time is drawing near
when night will hold you in its grasp
and all will be quite clear.

Sleepless child in your bed
hide away from fright,
and not a one knows that he’s dead
as shadows come at night.
Wicked little shadows walking,
I see them everywhere,
and every night their voiceless talking
fills me with despair.

#3 – The Scariest Halloween by L.B. Ricks

Boil and Bubble, Toil and Trouble
Leaves to Gold from Green

Incantations, transformations
Happy Halloween!

Fangs of wax, black witches’ hats
Careworn adults become mischievous brats!

Indulgent surrender of sweets into bags
Smiles on the faces of ghosts, ghouls and hags!

Doorbells in darkness, a burnt autumn smell
Year after year, it’s cavity hell!

Hello neighbour, Trick or Treat
Give me something good to eat

Please no poison or razor blades
On this, our night of masquerades

As kids, we ran wild those Halloween nights
Filling our minds with cheap delights

The homes in which people had died
Always thrilled and mystified

Each Halloween, outside every abode,
Jack o lanterns grinned and glowed

And soon enough I was full grown
Awaiting young monsters of my own

Staring, zombie-like, one Halloween
Watching war on a flickering screen

I wondered how people who lived side by side
Could turn on each other in genocide

Then, one eerie night, I tried to change
Some plans with a friend who’d been acting strange

I phoned her to discuss it – when
Came a fright that I’ve re-lived again and again

This woman, seemingly decent and good
Lashed out- cutting me just as deep as she could

What great horror filled me, when someone I knew
Threw off her smiling mask and said “Boo.”

Shellout, Shellout! The witches are out!
Evil is close, near, and about:

Bacteria thriving on sweet saliva!
Tooth decay as young children play,

Smiles that cover a secret loathing
Perverts and rejects and wolves in sheep’s clothing,

A flash of contempt in a stranger’s face
An expression so dark it can’t be seen,

A friend who turns in the full moonlight
Howling your name on Halloween.

#4 – “Chamber of Foreboding” by Faolchú Ghealaí

The haunted halls moan
Forlornly in my ear.

Spirits waste not
The hunger of
Ghost hunters

Who seek souls lost
In a sea of wretchedness.

Local haunts consume the
Interminable and
The interminable consume

The yearnings that superficially
Fill my voids from within.

They make me pitiable in the shadows
Of loves long lost
That make way down the

Darkened hallways of my desolate
Prison.

#5 – One Who is Three by Payam Nabarz

Morrigan
Goddess of War,
bestower and reaper of life
Phantom Queen.

Black-feathered, spear in hand
naked breasts heavy with blood and milk,
standing across the river of life.

Your beloved die in your arms,
your foes die at your feet.
Dark mother, luscious Crone, Goddess of death

as a battle rages,
your are there, graceful Raven
tearing flesh from bone.

As the moon wanes
we become closer, and closer
at the dark moon;
we dance in your cave.
Great Queen, Morrigan.

Be it a haunting haiku, alarming limerick, wraithlike rondeau or bloodcurdling burlesque, we want you to show us—and the world—your creatively creepy skills.

HOW TO ENTER:

Starting today, (Monday, October 19, 2009) at 2PM CST until Monday, October 26, 2009, at 2PM CST Llewellyn fans can submit an original, spine-chilling poem for our spooktacular “Your Poem Gives Me the Creeps” Halloween Poetry Contest by posting it to this discussion on our Facebook Fan Page.

Not on Facebook? No problem! We can post your poem for you. All you have to do is submit your poem via email to moon@llewellyn.com.

HOW TO VOTE:

Llewellyn’s staff will select the top 5 submissions and post them to our Portal to the Unknown blog on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 8AM CST.

Llewellyn friends and fiends will select the winning poem by casting their vote within the comments area of the blog post. That’s right, it’s all up to you! Let’s use our paranormal powers responsibly!

Voting for the contest will begin Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 8AM CST and end on October 29, 2009, at 4PM CST.

THE PRIZE:

The author of the poem receiving the most votes (aka blog comments) will win five of our creepiest Fall 2009 titles—Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps, Spirits Out of Time, Poltergeist, The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide, and True Ghosts.

The winner will be announced on our Portal to the Unknown blog at 12PM CST on Friday, October 30th.

CONTEST GUIDELINES:

1. All poems must be your original work.

2. We want everyone to have a fair chance, so no previously published poems, or poems that have already won contests.

3. We’d love to read for hours, but please help spare our eyeballs the agony. Seriously, poems should be roughly 10 lines long. If it’s really good, we won’t mind if you push it to 15 lines.

4. Goblins, ghouls, monsters, vamps, witches, wizards, and earthbound spirits come in all ages and sensibilities. Although we encourage contestants to be creative with their craft; please show respect and keep the prose PG. In other words, let’s keep it clean!

5. If you are under 18, you do need your parent’s permission to participate in the contest. We have psychics on staff, so we’ll know if you’re lying about your age. Besides, if your poem wins, you won’t be able to get your ghoulish goodies (aka paranormal prize package)!

6. Mean people suck (and not in a fun, vampish kind of way), so no gratuitously gross poems or prose that defames, threatens, or encourages harm or violence to anyone (alive or dead).

7. We know you really want to win and appreciate your enthusiasm, but anyone who comments multiple times or spams us in an effort to sway the contest vote will be automatically disqualified.

8. By posting your poem for the contest on Facebook you give Llewellyn permission to republish your work on our website. Contest entries will not be published in an anthology or other publication. Authors will retain all rights to their works.

Good luck and have fun writing your poems!