Aria Wins First Prize in Halloween Poem Contest

Sarah Brennan is an Australian children’s author, who has become famous for organising Clever Competitions for student writers from different age groups. Her latest Clever Competition was all about “Hair-Raising Halloween Poems”.

The 127 entries in this round came from 29 schools around the world, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and the UK. Two Grade 5 students from CIS Lakeside, Aria Fafat and Annette Shabana Dass participated in the competition with their terrifying poems.

Aria placed first in the hotly-contested Years 4 to 6 category. Sarah described Aria’s entry as an “exceptional free verse poem, full of fabulous vocabulary, vivid imagery, poetic style and a horrifying ending”. Congratulations to the talented young writers Aria and Annette!

Read Aria’s prize winning poem, and share your compliments on this page.

THE SILENT CALL OF HALLOWEEN

It’s a blood-curdling night, necromancy threaded into the thin air

Bloody hags drift about, aimlessly, pointlessly

Pale and lifeless, I walk to a tenebrous house, its cracked windows beguiling

Dragging me in, a powerful aura; I step inside…

In a maze, I am, trapped, nowhere to go

A never-ending rollercoaster, chilling my heart with despair and anguish

My hands find a bag, opulent with blood-red sweets,

I open one; it’s even more enticing… my mouth’s afire…

A skeletal hand snakes through looming corridors,

Holding a pumpkin, mush dripping from its mouth and eyes, like a waterfall of guilt

Watching my heart quicken and sweat in agony.

Take me… Help me, it pleads; unwillingly, I reach out for it…

A black silence engulfs me, whispering secrets of the unknown.

The wind whips me with answers…to swirling questions never asked

I know now why I am here, how I am here.

It’s Halloween, I have been Summoned; it is now the time to Scare…Them.