October 15, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

It is the third week of October!

Before ending my series of October postings, it is only fitting to cite Edgar Allan Poe, an autumn person to the roots of his heart and soul. 

In his greatest poem “Ulalume”, Poe describes the October dream-scape that his narrator is journeying through on his way to a mysterious destination.  It is clear that this nightmarish experience is taking place on Halloween night.

The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crisped and sere-

The leaves they were withering and sere:

It was night, in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year:

It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,

In the misty mid region of Weir:-

It was down by the dark tarn of Auber,

In the ghoul-haunted woodland  of Weir.

The narrator encounters weird visions, including the “specter” of a planet—a  ghost planet!—and ends up standing before the tomb of his beloved, the Lady Ulalume.

The narrator has been tricked by the woodland ghouls into a confrontation with Death.   And this is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat!

JLS

October 8, 2024

 Greetings Everyone!

It is the second week of October.

 H. P. Lovecraft, surely as much of a patron saint of autumn as Ray Bradbury, personifies October as a “mystic pilgrim” in his poem “October.”

“Mellow-faced with eyes of faery, wistful clad in tinted leaves,

See the brown October tarry by the golden rows of sheaves.

Oak and acorn in his garland, fruit and wineskin in his hands,

Mystic pilgrim from a far land down the road to farther lands.”

This is a bit ironic because Lovecraft didn’t believe in the existence of “farther lands.”  Lovecraft had no love for humans, no hope that human beings could perfect themselves and no faith that higher, spiritual beings exist who care about  us.  He saw only a bleak, frightening cosmos waiting in the future—a cosmos indifferent to us and filled with malevolent entities that seek to insure our destruction.

But this is Lovecraft’s belief and there is no reason why we have to accept it.  

For my part, I believe in the farther lands—the lands of beauty and promise— where we can, if we have enough love, hope and faith, make all of our dreams come true.

JLS 

October 2, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

It is the first week of October.

Ray Bradbury, who can be considered as the patron saint of October, describes the last day of the month in his book The Halloween Tree—a book that adults as well as children should read to get into the spirit of this timeless season.

“It was the afternoon of Halloween.

And all the houses shut against a cool wind.

And the town full of cold sunlight.

But suddenly, the day was gone.

Night came out from under each tree and spread.....

Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet.  Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades.....”

These words seem to be permeated with death. The cold wind; the velvet cerements; the funeral plumes; all of these seem to be a threat.

But Halloween is not about death.  It is about life.

The candle burning in the jack o’ lantern is life and, perhaps, the celebration of the everlasting life to come after death. 

JLS