It’s Halloweensie Time!

Just in time for Halloween, Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog is chock-full of fun-sized stories! Susanna is hosting her 5th Annual Halloweensie Contest. The rules for this year’s contest are to write a 100-word or less Halloween story for kids, using the words costume, dark, and haunt (or any variation like costumed, darkened, haunted, etc.) If you’re reading this and it’s before Friday, October 30th at 11:59 pm, you’ve still got time to join the halloweensie parade. Visit Susanna’s blog to find links to all the Halloweensie entries.

Here’s mine:

halloweendebut

My kind daughter put my poem on the above image (thank you, Widescreen Wallpapers!) and darkened the web line that ran through it. She also said I should post the poem without the image, in case anyone who uses text-to-speech software wanted to read it. That’s something I never would have thought of (and why I depend on my kids to keep me up-to-date.)  So here’s the non-image enhanced version:

Spider’s Halloween Debut
by Buffy Silverman

Spider spun her sticky web
and scrutinized the scene below.
A ghoulish ghost and ghastly witch
were putting on a scary show

to entertain a costumed crew
who bravely watched the chilling sight.
The audience heard gruesome groans
and shivered in the cold, dark night.

Spider itched to join the fun,
to haunt, to scare, to steal the show.
She dropped a line and skittered down,
but no one looked… so she let go

and landed on the witch’s neck.
Spider scampered, spider crawled,
She heard a screech! She heard a howl!
Creepy spider spooked them all.

Happy Halloween and Happy Early Poetry Friday. Visit Jone at Check it Out for more poetry friday treats.

53 thoughts on “It’s Halloweensie Time!

  1. I just found this poem on my interwebs searching and I LOVE it! If I give you proper credit may I use it on one of my posts for my 2018 Halloween jewelry collection, Wicked Couture (www.FTDofJanuaryJune.etsy.com). We have created spider / web influenced designs for 2018.

    1. Hi Nicole,
      Thanks for stopping by–I’m glad you enjoyed my poem. Since I make my living (or what passes for a living 🙂 ) as a writer, I’d rather you not post this poem. At some point I will probably try to submit it for publication, and having it on your blog will make that more difficult.

    1. You and me both, Bridget. Apparently you need image-editing software…but since I don’t really want to buy it or learn it, it’s easier to pass it on to someone who knows what they’re doing.

  2. I’m so glad to know why people often post the text in addition to the art/text combo. Kids these days know stuff we just don’t! Great poem, too. 🙂 Happy Halloween!

  3. Fun poem-story! I did a similar dance last night when I noticed an earwig crawling on the covers near my head! EEK!

  4. Great story, best wishes in the contest. I love all the spidery things decorating houses’ roofs and porches, very fun. The graphic for the poem is good, too, but story is super, amazing what can be told in less than 100 words!

  5. Thanks so much for the collaborative effort that produced a treat for ears and eyes! Your spider-character’s grand entrance into the festivities reminded me of a Halloween library-setting picture book the little ones enjoyed safely squealing to: Littlebat’s Halloween. Poems give us that safety, too. We scream, knowing it’s ok. (Can you tell I’m not a big spider fan?) Thanks, and God bless you!

  6. Buffy, with my penchant for spider texts, I fond this poem of yours to be just the right measure of rhythm, rhyme, spook, and fun for any child’s (adult’s too) Halloween night. May I use this one in Autumn’s Palette Gallery under the Halloween section? It is the right shade of black.

  7. Oh, Buffy! That was creepy. I used to have to skitter into our barn quickly to avoid the spider in the corner of the doorway that I was sure was going to do just what yours did! Makes me itch now just thinking about it!

    1. I pictured this spider as living high on a rafter in a barn (but with 100 words or less, did not quite have the space to include those rafters.) There’s something about a spider in a barn that’s extra creepy!

  8. Ooo! This one is fun. It’s moving up to the top tier of my list! Great rhyming and a complete story with character and a super twist. Great job!

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