Reflections

Bringing Light To Darkness

Come join me on Thursday 31st October at 7.30pm for a series of themed poetry readings! Plus, a few haikus.

It’s getting close to that time of year again. I don’t find the whole “trick-or-treat” and commercialised aspects of Halloween to be particularly interesting. What begins life as a Christian celebration of their many saints now feels like anything but.

One thing that I do find interesting about this time of year is the surge in interest around horror and dark themes in literature - something I do find to be a valuable exploration. To my mind, it is worthwhile being able to shine a light on darker themes and ideas, not as a means of glorifying them, but to be able to contrast that to what I know to be moral and ethical decisions that I could make. It’s something my friend Leon Earl has written about in relation to fiction:

And they are themes that I enjoy exploring in my own writing precisely for that reason; it’s why pieces like Pig People and The Revolution Was Already Televised exist.

With all this in mind, I’m here to offer something that both honours the value that dark themes in poetry can bring, as well as provide a meaningful alternative to the commercialised activities that will end up being commonplace on Halloween. At 7.30pm UK Time on the 31st October, I’ll be hosting an X Space to do some readings of horror and dark poetry, both of my own and of a few other classic poets and writers I find interesting.

Make sure you’re following me on X to get access to that space when it goes live and how to join.

Go To Space

X / Twitter

Everyone is welcome to listen to the space, and my paid subscribers are welcome to join the space with speaking privileges to give commentary on some of the pieces I read. I’ll be in touch with paid subscribers on the day to let them know how that works - and there’s plenty of time to become a paid subscriber if you’d like to be part of that offering!

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And for those unable to make it, I’ll leave you with a couple of horror haikus that I have saved from when I last participated in the Horror Haiku Club from Honeygloom. I have let other commitments take priority in recent times over participating in the daily prompts, but I can recommend it for anyone looking to do something creative with darker themes who wants a daily writing practise.

However you choose to spend your Halloween, I hope it is meaningful and worthwhile.

a close-up of a door handle — Photo by Random Mono on Unsplash

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedA warped keyhole stared -
engraving its will on me,
so Hell might be free.

Pandora’s Box - A Haiku by Tom Shaw

architectural photography of brown ruins — Photo by BENCE BOROS on Unsplash

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedHe heard all the cheers
for the resident butcher.
There were none for him.

Colosseum Cheers - A Haiku by Tom Shaw

Further Updates

Following a conversation and some idea-sharing with my good friend Lluvias Trozzi, I’ve opted to change so some of the Substack offerings I announced in “A Learning Process”.

First, there will no longer be any paywall applied at any time to the poems shared to all subscribers on a two-week basis. This allows you to continue sharing these pieces to your heart’s desires.

For paid subscribers, I am introducing a “Poem Share” here on Substack using the Chat feature. The idea of this is for all my paid subscribers to be able to share poems, prose, or inspirational poems within our community that we find on our travels. I’ll be using this as a means of sharing some of the poetry that I’m finding powerful, so if you’d also like to see what’s inspiring me, then why not become a paid subscriber today? It helps me out tremendously and helps subsidise both the free content I provide and the amount of time I can give to other initiatives like Over to the Youth

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Thank you all for your support thus far, and I can’t wait to share more with you in the future.

With gratitude,

Tom