Happy Halloween 2010!

  Haunted House

There's a house upon the hilltop

We will not go inside

For that is where the witches live,

Where ghosts and goblins hide.

Tonight they have their party,

All the lights are burning bright,

But oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

The demons there are whirling

And the spirits swirl about.

They sing their songs to Halloween.

"Come join the fun," they shout.

But we do not want to go there

So we run with all our might

And oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

- by Jack Prelutsky

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Domestic Violence

History echoes the screams of women--
violated, abused, ravaged.
Some have heard the death knell--
the last sound ever.

Others live in fearful isolation
with humiliation and pain
endured through many years
silently suffering, lost, nowhere to turn.

Survivors live in seclusion
detached
distant
distrustful

The seclusion every suffering animal craves
to be let alone
to lick their wounds
to heal.

Barbara Baskin 2010 

Autumn Fantasy

Autumn Fantasy

In my autumn fantasy
Endless miles of blazing color
Spreads beneath my feet,

Light mist lingers through the trees;
Swirling gently with each breeze
Colors mesh in focus
Then fade;
In waves of brilliance and subtle haze,

I gather leaves;
Their unique beauty surrounding me
Inhaling their scent appreciatively,

I'd gladly coexist in this fragrant mist
My gaze defining the trees shapes and forms;
As I feel the sun on my face
Now warm,

I could stroll forever
In this place,
In awe I am of beauty
Supreme;
As only seen in a dream,

And when the sun has faded from the sky,
On a bed of soft leaves
Will I lie;
To dream again
In ecstasy
Of my autumn fantasy.

Nancy Ellen Crossland

Silence

Silence

Listen.
Do you hear it?
The low, soft nothing of silence?

Silence.
I wallow in it.
I wrap it around me -- a cloak of comfort.
I am alone.
I come into myself.

Silence.
My mind is set free.
I think, I wonder.
I feel the words flowing.

Silence.
Blessed silence.

Barbara B. Baskin 2010