The Saturday Symphony #12 (Birthday edition)

Hi guys. It’s my birthday today. And also the 12th edition of The Saturday Symphony.
How auspicious is that?

Early morning mood

Here’s a little senryu to kick us off;

With Age
I Welcome
Wisdom

Happy birthday to me.

This week’s three featured posts

1. The games of sorcerers by Olga – If you’re a Tolkien geek like me, you won’t find a better site. I had to share this.
2. Mad rhymes by Delia – Outstanding and amazing rhythm with fathomless depths of emotion.
3. You in another life by Gabriella – This sensual poem swept me off my feet.

A Symphony cake for y’all

PONDEROUS THOUGHT

HAUNTINGS

What is your favourite location for a chilling horror and what would that horror be?

Have fun with this, all forms of writing, art and images are welcome.

Don’t forget to pingback to this post so I can find you, and so others can also join in.

I hope it’s not weird that I’m celebrating my birthday with a horror prompt, but I love horror.

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Ponderous writers from last week’s feature

“MYTHICAL CREATURES”

• A nonet to baby Yoda by Dora – The force is strong with this one.
• Pegasus to the rescue by Kim – Exceptionally enthralling and chilling.
• Mythological creatures by Saly – Amazing poetry on intriguingly benign and sinister creatures
• Ancient refrains by Jules – A stunning tale and a unique myth.
• Reminiscing by Eugi – Quite mysterious.

Thank you all, lots of love.

A sunny day selfie, it’s my birthday!

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Don’t forget to use this week’s ponderous thought above.

Be sure to pingback to this post, and also paste the link to your post in the comments section just to be sure I find you.

Remember to love, and then love some more.
I know I will.

Sorry, I just can’t stop myself.

I hope you visit all the featured posts,
Just click on the links and enjoy.

Can’t wait for your horror pieces this week.

Stay safe everyone.

Faithless. A haunting. #poetry and prose

Before you read this, I wish you to know,
That hope lies within us all,
That the greatest keeper of hope is faith,
And that through faith, we draw strength to face the darkest of trials.
Despite our beliefs.

Faithless (A haunting)

Drip…
Drip…
Fear falls
and tears drop
No leaps to take
No faith to hold on to.
Depression heralds its coming
Desperation is its conduit
Distress and despair, the signature it leaves.
I have seen it in my nightmares
Sensed it in my dreams
It stalks my every waking moment
A peripheral dread
glimpsed but not seen.

For seven days it has haunted me
Tortured my Psychê
Sipped into every conversation
Drained all my self esteem
and pushed everyone away
Tonight, it all culminates!

I wonder why I took that dare,
Why I called that dreadful name
Three times I whispered to the dark
Three times I summoned my doom
And now there’s nothing I can do
But face this horror that I rue!

It’s midnight,
I’ve slumbered into a restless sleep
An insipid darkness thickens beneath my bed
Oozing out onto the floor
The air goes cold
I wake with a start
It’s here! I sense it
My pupils dilate
I can see it taking shape
An obsidian menace
Blacker than darkness!

I do not know any prayers
I do not know who to call
I am alone

© judeitakali

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I’ve always thought it’s better to have faith and be wrong,
Than to be wrong, without faith.

Veiled spiritual realm
Are you real or are you fake
Do you not exist
If you do, I must prepare
If you don’t, then just in case

See, I wink in the face of danger

I’ve been hinting at horror throughout this week.

Finally my horror tingles have been sated. I hope this scares you a little, then gives you hope again.

Stay safe everyone, have faith.

Love’s bane #Haibun

Colleen’s weekly challenge.

Love’s bane.

If you have to look, you will
never see
If you have seen, you need only to look.

Dark sinister night
Bullfrogs croak and crickets chirp
Prequels to silence

Your heartbeat flutters
I can feel it in the dark
My subconscious is attuned to its rhythm
All those nights we’ve lain so close
I’ve felt your heart’s every inflection
Known its needs before you’ve thought them
But not this time

This time your heart beats different
This time we tread an uncharted path
A dark way moist with fear
There is no compass to point us north
No map through spiteful contours
There is only a feeling!
Ominous
Deadly and foreboding!

I’ve always known your heartbeat,
Understood it,
But now there’s something else
An eerie presence lurking in these stygian shadows
A beast stalking our every move
Dread brewing in its wake
And I am scared!
Scared that we will never be the same
Scared that before our journey’s end,
Your heart will fade away from mine

For none can map a lover’s road,
When heartbreak prowls its every turn

Lonely nightingale
Sing us your love lullaby
May we never wake

© judeitakali

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Colleen’s theme prompt – Maps

I had to write this under the moonlight. There was a 24hr blackout and all my devices were not charged.

It was frustrating until I decided to make the most of it, then it was wonderfully nostalgic.
Had to dial down on the horror though. Too many unfamiliar night shadows.

I did have fun, trading modern comforts for traditional ways. Won’t make a habit of it though.

Hope you enjoy this. It’s quite metaphoric.

Stay safe everyone, stay loving.

Forget me not

What do you see #40

The world beyond the veil
The veil not many know
If ye be spiritual
Ye must believe
If ye be not
Ye need only to feel

Do you sense it at times
Do you notice
Those odd things that happen
When what’s even is not given
When one does not pacify
The spirits on the other side…

Gran’s favourite room!
Gran’s finest china!
Once each month without fail
She laid it without question
My child! She would say
When I’m gone, you must do the same
Each full moon
You must soothe the spirits of this house!

I did not believe
But I did it anyway
For her dying wishes
Meant so much to me
And while I did
All was normal
Until I didn’t
Then everything changed…

The walls came alive
Tainted in shadows
The windows rattled
And the kitchen cabinets shook with anger
All the cutlery shattered
All,
Save that finest china

So, quickly I hastened to lay it
Pristine as Gran used to
Appeasing the spectres from beyond!

Other world
Where Ying turns to Yang
Forget Me Not!

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Do you believe in the paranormal?

I hope you enjoy this.
Stay safe everyone, stay cautious.

Letting go

what do you see #36 .

Silence stalked us
It slithered in our wake
Ahiss with menace
Jane shifted uneasily as we set up the equipment
Her expression foreboding,
I could feel it too
A presence that skulked in the shadows
Gripping that room in a vice-like stillness
Our very breathing, an intrusion
But we’d come so far already
And this was the only way

We had everything
A book of death from the graveyard crypts
The camera spelled by a white witch
A precious memory, a gift to the power beyond the veil
Runes of necromancy etched into our right arms
And lastly here we were,
In a place of death
A gas leak had killed a party of students in this very room a year ago
Everything we needed to bring back mum
Dad was gone
We were alone
The grief unbearable

Jane was a mask of determination that strengthened my resolve
We took a breath and linked our hands
Reciting the spell from the book of death
This was it! finally we’d have mum back…

There was a long moment of dread before it all began
First, everything paled to black and white
A faint ringing pressed upon our ears
The rusty smell of ozone charged the air all round
The hair on my body stood on end
And goosebumps raptured allover my skin
My heartbeat was frantic, thumping wildly against my chest
Dread rolled through my body
But excitement held it at bay

Mum’s favorite image flashed upon the screen
her on her wedding day
A forlorn sliver of colour in that colourless room
The last step was to push the camera button
I nodded and Jane extended a trembling finger, pressing down..

Our biggest mistake!

Pale secrets of death!
Dreaded and craved all the same!
The Living Beware!

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If you had a chance to bring back your greatest loss, would you?

Stay safe my friends, stay loving.

Traps and snares

Lost and beleaguered within a pale stainless night
Pursued by the minions of pestilence
Grotesque skeletal henchmen
sniffing the night air and tasting the shadowed breeze
Seeking the scent of fear

In that dark wilderness she sees it,
Golden light peeking through a sequestered woodshed
All she has to survive is a demented warning
Stay hidden! Keep to the shadows!

Yet still, the promise of warmth and refuge addles all prior instruction
Her frightened mind dazed by this long spine-tingling pursuit
She creeps slowly towards the light
wearied from hours in the cold and the dark
heedlessly inching her way into the very trap she’d been warned against,
The enemy lying in wait

.

.

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While writing this I kept thinking about the easing of some quarantine restrictions in some places. Much needed relief don’t you think.

But I hope we do not allow the weariness of solitude to make us forget to keep taking the basic precautions. We aren’t out of the woods yet.

Stay safe my friends, stay cautious

Oh and I hope you enjoy the horror poetry

Encounters from Beyond. (A short story)

This is inspired by stories from two awesome people, Saly and Pooja .
(click on their names to visit their sites)

From the moment my eyes opened
I could feel that day was different
Special because it felt perfectly normal
The sun beamed with cozy warmth
And a cool rosy breeze fanned through the house
My morning routine passed by without a hitch
A bit of reading, exercise, and a sneaky indulgence in sugary treats

Late afternoon would find me at my favourite diner
With two of my favourite friends
And that’s when this gay auspicious day
Took on a sinister flavour

It began with a selfie
Us three, beside a delicious spread
But as I admired that photo for the upteenth time,
the way the light caught my good side,
I noticed a face in the background
Pale, gray and forlorn
A girl I knew used to work here
Before she’d died, three months ago!

The effigy was gone in a breath. I tried to tell my friends
But they laughed and said
“just a reflection off the screen”
And so, uneasily, I shrugged it off

Evening brought us to my favourite pier
We threw pebbles in the lake
Gazed at the full moon reflected on the water
and had shared reminisces upon the star strewn ripples

But then something cold passed through me
I wondered, for there was no breeze
I looked around and that’s when I saw them
Dressed in exquisite 50s’ attire
A spectral couple, hand in hand, gliding to the land
Remnants from colonial revelries long ago

I blinked but there they still were
Walking, silent, then disappearing through the brush.
Afraid to ruin our merriment, I kept it to myself

But these images would wake me in the middle of the night
Beneath my sheets was a furnace
Above them, a glacial chill
Foreboding hang in the air like a rancid smog
Everything felt wrong
Flashes of my earlier sightings played through my mind

GUSH! A tap from the bath opened
Then, a footstep from within
I fidgeted for my phone
but the bathroom door began to creek
Quickly I flung the blanket over me
And clasped onto the silence

A scrape against the floor
It inches closer
I want to scream but fear freezes me
Then silence!
Deep and engulfing
My heart sprints a marathon in each second. But still, nothing happens.

I risk a peek above the blanket
My heart freezes
A spectre floats at the foot of my bed
Watching me
Translucent and docile, it does not move
It simply watches

Then those pale eyes creek in their sockets and look directly at me-
They look deep into my soul. The spectre begins to fade
A ghost of a leer left behind

Most times I forget
But somewhere within my mind
Memory lingers

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Just because you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean it does not exist.

Jackie from calmwildness encouraged me to write a short story. It was really fun.
I hope you all enjoy this one.

Cheers again to Pooja of lifesfinewhine and
Saly from theresaly520 for sharing the stories that inspired me to write this.

Sacrifice (prose and poetry)

Midday! The sun ablaze, searing with brightness!
but in that hall, it’s dark as night
hearths line the wall, fire flickers!
lightless, warmless flames!
like yellow ribbons eerily fluttering in windless cornersShe stands in this pale darkness
She doesn’t see far
but what she cannot see, she senses!
she feels! smells! hears!
Sorcery saturates within the air,
things dwell in the shadows of this room
beyond sight, out of touch!
Jealous things! forces that protect what she seeksThe yellow ribbon flames dim and the darkness condenses
it folds into a spot in front of her
taking the shape of a shadowed man
the necromancer she seeks!
She will do anything to pluck her family from the jaws of death
from the grip of plague and disease
but anything turns to everything when it comes to the necromancer!
A sacrifice she has prepared to face!

White hands, dark works
away from light, into darkness
whatever it takes

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Stand fast, stay safe.

Disguised in Love (fiction and poetry)

She loves me!
She loves me not!
My fear chokes hope in its noxious grip
they dance in a deadly tet-a-tet along my fragile heartstrings
She wants me!
Oh yes she does!
But for what I do not know

I feel it in my bones
a warning, ominous and yet exciting
an icy sinister chill rattling through my body, foreboding!
and yet thrilling!
inflaming goosebumps of eager anticipation

How I’ve wanted this!
How I’ve craved to be in this moment and in this place!
bare and vulnerable, desperate for a lover’s embrace

She saunters seductively around her kitchen table
desire etched all over her face,
I can’t help but feel lucky
after months of wooing and pursuing
to finally be here at her invitation
as she whips up her special meal

There’s a glint in her eye!
disguised beneath flirtatious lust
I do not perceive what I see
but the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end
She swipes two kitchen knives together
an indecent leer replacing her beguiling smile

“And now for the main course,” she says!
pinning me with a greedy stare
as she savors her way towards me…

It takes a long moment for me to realise,
She loves me not!

Everything goes frantic!
I stand but my laces have been tied to the chair!
I stumble and fall and she pounces upon me
flipping me over with unnatural strength
pinning me down…

“I’m sorry,” she says, not a hint of remorse on her face, “my children are hungry!”
“and how they love a loving heart..”

I feel something!
little sharp fingers clawing up my arms and legs
I take a moment to gaze upon the face I’ve come to love
It’s still the same face!
and yet completely changed…

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I hope this sends some chills up your spine, the way it sent quite a few up mine, but take solace in the fact that it’s just fiction.

However, may we be reminded to heed the warnings in our hearts or our intuition. Do not always follow them but be very sure before you let down all defenses leaving yourself vulnerable.

Apologies for the scare, I really can’t resist writing horror poetry every now and then.

Take care in this period of uncertainty and temptation. And keep taking the precautions advised.

A Bitter Surprise (haibun poetry and prose)

it all started but moments ago
i was wrenched from the thralls of a blissful dream
and dumped in the bitter dregs of reality
I can almost taste the sweetness of fantasy turn sour
as this living nightmare manifests
A scream! shreds through the night air
ripping the silence apart
and piercing deep into my slumbering heart
I twist through the tangle of sheets in my tent
flashing my phonelight about, searching...
but no, I'm alone!
Oh no!
my frantic heart skips a beat
and in that beat all becomes clear
That scream came from her!

duplicitous woods
with offers either side of midnight
pleasures before, horrors after

And now while i struggle through this tangled undergrowth
i can hear the whimpering pleas of her frightened voice
She's still alive! that strengthens my resolve
i slow my motions and stifle the slightest sounds
the night creatures are silent, not a single cricket chirps
i'm armed as well as i could be
stone in left! clubbing branch in right!
i see three others in that twilit clearing
standing around her kneeling frame
she's alive! that's all i need to know!
i leap out!

love's adrenaline
inflamed by pleasures of night
reckless and brave

I hear the calls and shouts
as my left hand strikes the nearest head
Beth runs towards me
waving her hands, screaming for me to stop!
lights blaze and glare all around!
I see cartons of beer!
I see a cake!
Was this my birthday surprise?!
I look down
Greg is dead!
and all is silent!