All Hallow’s Eve Pastoral
A wind is blowing through the trees.
A wind is blowing through the trees.
Leaves are swirling round my knees.
Leaves are swirling round my knees.
Through my trees is a swirling wind.
The leaves are blowing round my knees.
The crisp air, scent of humus and apples.
The crisp air, scent of humus and apples.
Geese overhead honk goodbye as they pass.
Geese overhead honk goodbye as they pass.
The scent of humus and crisp apples pass.
Overhead geese honk the air as they goodbye.
Scarecrows and jack o’lanterns dance at dusk.
Scarecrows and jack o’lanterns dance at dusk.
Silhouettes contrast against the full yellow wolf moon.
Silhouettes contrast against the full yellow wolf moon.
Against full wolf moon contrast silhouettes at dusk;
the scarecrows and yellow jack o’lanterns dance.
Yellow leaves round my knees at dusk
wind through scent of humus and crisp apples.
Geese honk goodbye as they pass, silhouettes,
a contrast against the full wolf moon.
Overhead the air is blowing my trees, swirling
scarecrows and jack o’lanterns dance.
Grace is today’s host of dVerse’ Meeting the Bar/Form. Grace says:
Write a paradelle. Suggested themes are: All Hallows Eve, or Day of the Dead or cast a poetry spell or magical wishes on the readers.
Tao Talk 
Brings back memories of Halloweens past.
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:)
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The repetition in this is almost hypnotic… those dancing lanterns sounds like fun.
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Thanks, Bjorn :)
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Lisa, What a wonderful ode to autumn and Halloween! It sweeps one away in the glorious scents and sights of the season.
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Dora, thank you. It’s been a beautiful autumn here.
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Happy Halloween! I like this poem and form a lot. Great describing the scenes and senses, and the lines rearranged. :)
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Happy Halloween Barbara. There was smoke coming out of my ears by the end of writing it. lol. I’ve fallen behind on Ghost & Steve but hope to get back to their story in the near future.
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Very cool and unexpected carving.
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It’s a beauty isn’t it.
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Truth! 🤓
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Your Paradelle flows beautifully, makes perfect sense and is lovely to boot! I struggled “my flow” shows it I think. Oh well, I now have a big bowl of sea salt caramel ice cream to soothe my frazzled nerves. LOL
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Thanks, Helen. Yummy on the ice cream!
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Perfect for today! Did you carve that wonderful pumpkin? (K)
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I wish I could say yes. It’s another one from fmg.
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A rich environment for sure.
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Another great Halloween one and Autumn at the same time. It’s a great feeling.
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Max, thank you and glad to bring them both to you with the poem.
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Beautifully executed word crafting for an autumn poem. I do enjoy those swirling leaves and that crisp air.
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Truedessa happy you enjoyed the poem, thank you.
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This is my favorite imagery:
Against full wolf moon contrast silhouettes at dusk;
the scarecrows and yellow jack o’lanterns dance.
That last stanza paints a festive Halloween with scarecrows and jack o’lanterns dance. Love your paradelle.
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Thank you very much and thank you for a challenging prompt.
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I’m admiring your beautifully carved paradelle, Lisa! A wild celebration of fall :D
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Lynn, love your comment, thanks so much <3
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A lovely poem, LIsa.
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Thanks, Robbie :)
p.s. I’ve just sent 3 emails to you and Colleen in response to the one you two sent me.
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Okay, thank you, Lisa. Amazon blocked my latest paperback due to AI design work (I think because when I changed the design they accepted it). It has given me a shock!
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So sorry to hear that, Robbie. I’m sure that was hours and hours of effort blockaded. Mine isn’t a case of AI being used. Hopefully you saw the emails. Not sure if you saw that Bezos also forbid The Washington Post for endorsing a POTUS candidate. It’s censorship. I can see you having to put “AI design work” on your book but outright blocking it is another matter.
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Hi Lisa, I do agree and it is a bit worrying. The AI detection programmes have a high inaccuracy rate (40%) so they aren’t reliable at all. It is all very worrying for writers because if publishers like Amazon start using them, it’s going to make a lot of mistakes. There has been a bit of an issue with the use of AI in poetry which is why we decided to use the AI checker. I also had the issue with my book which was very upsetting. I did read your email and I understand completely.
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Robbie, I discussed the whole thing at length with my 2 sons, both deep into computer use and training. They said that the “checkers” use secret algorithms they refuse to share, they always leave a loophole for themselves, e.g. “very likely AI generated,” and that some of the programs have judged the U.S. Constitution as being written by AI. I don’t trust them (40% inaccuracy is unacceptable!) and to use them for censorship is unconscionable.
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My son is also deeply into computers. He is studying computer science at Uni. He told me about the 40% and that you can’t rely on the AI detection programmes. It just creates a bigger conundrum for people like us. I can’t see any benefits to AI and wish it didn’t exist.
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p.s. I’ve been noticing on my microsoft photo editing program AI offers to help. I decline it, but I wonder if I said yes, it would be considered “AI assisted”? I’m guessing it would be :(
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HI Lisa, I think so. Colleen has written an informative and helpful post about AI. I learned a lot through reading it. I am not going to be using any AI going forward. It’s to much of a bother.
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Robbie, I read it and learned a lot from Colleen’s post. I have never used AI to write or “assist” except for a poetry prompt at dVerse that asked us to use it to write a poem, which shows how inept any AI program would be at writing poetry.
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This is a beautifully written piece Li.
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Thanks, Sadje. I don’t like it much but you and others like it, so I’m happy.
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I really do. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
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<3
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Beautiful Halloween poetry, Li. Happy Halloween. :)
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Kitty thank you :)
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I can hear the ducks and taste the cider. Nicely done.
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My work here is done ;)
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:-) Absolutely. :-)
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Very Halloweeny! So much sensory in this delightful poem.
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D, thanks a million :)
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Awesome Halloween poem.
I like the first stanza a lot. It closes that light and great as if you did not need to construct it so well to fit the form:
“Through my trees is a swirling wind.
The leaves are blowing round my knees.”
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Thanks much!
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Your final stanza is wonderful, Lisa – This is simply terrific.
~David
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David, thanks, glad you liked it.
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A wonderful interpretation of autumn in a very difficult form…very nicely done.
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