The Shroud Underground

Halloween Horror Haiku Contest

What: A Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that in English is structured with three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables and the third line has five.

It is all about the syllables. Please see my attempts below as examples. Hopefully, yours is better than these that I cranked out in about fifteen minutes.

When: Deadline 8/8/08

Where: Right here. Tim Deal has agreed to allow NT to host it on his site

How: Post a reply here by the deadline and your in!

Prize: This is a winner take all, with the winner getting published in NT's Monster Halloween Double Sized Issue. The Winner will also receive an NT T-Shirt, a copy of the Abominations Anthology (I bought 20 or so and so should you) and everlasting fame and bragging rights.

Examples:

Three restless souls scream
The Necromancer struggles
A fourth soul now screams

The blade cuts and stabs
Blood drips like a metronome
Screams fade to whimpers

The dark shade watches
Children play in the wreckage
Soon darkness will fall

Cannibals puking
So much for human sushi
Next time salmon rolls

-Natalie L. Sin

My own name in blood
The Devil's laugh is rotten
Infinite brimstone

Here they find just tricks
The bodies litter the lawn
My treat, my rifle

I had to kill them

to silence all the voices

but now I'm lonely

A big thank you to the courageous writers who have already taken on this challenge. It is no small thing to post your writing, even a small haiku where everyone can see it. Since we only have a week, and odds are the participation will be small, please feel free to submit up to three.

#1 of 3.

Blood and Guts Galore
People Lay Scattered About
Now I Must Reload

#2 of 3.

Two Horror Masters
Romero and Argento
Keep the Films Rolling

ATTEMPT #1

Pumpkins hollowed out
the moist insides torn away
Oops, that's no pumpkin

This pine box is dark
Worms fester in my marrow
I'm no Houdini

My knife bites gently,
A sweet, tender lover's kiss
your flesh's soul mate this.

Slip your knife inside –
sweep upwards, across: now pull!
You like that, don’t you.



I pressed – her eyes popped,
dropped into my lap: plop, plop.
Mum was very cross.



“It’s just a machine,”
he said, “Don’t be afraid!” but
it hurt, oh it hurt…

Trick-or-treating girl
Tripped, fell on hatchet, blade up
Poor girl lost her head

number 2


He is a good kid
Sure, he ate a few people
But hey, who hasn't?

Widows wait at sea
Submerged rocks tear flesh and bone
A ghost ship sails free