Week Three - Task #11. - “Ghastly, Gaunt, and Ominous”

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

Task:
Share a piece of Creative Writing in the form of a story with us using 75 words or more. You may be as appropriately dark or silly and comedic as you wish, but must including the words Ghastly, Gaunt, and Ominous in your work.

Alternatively you may contribute an original Poem in 75 words or more titled “Ghastly, Gaunt, and Ominous.”

This task is worth 15 beans, with an additional 15 bonus beans for completing all Week Three tasks by end of activity. Deadline is 11:59pm (HOL time) on Halloween, Monday October 31st.

[Rhaneyra Black]

The Graveyard

I walked into the graveyard that one afternoon, the fog now covering the air and vision, I walked among the tombstones, oh how beautiful and ominous the slivers of marble shone through the moss that now covered them. I looked ahead, to see the gaunt figure of the grave keeper, his eyes glassy eyed as if he was dead. I walked towards him, confused at his walk, and I touched his shoulder to grab his attention. However, to my horror, I jumped back when he turned, for his face, now ghastly and rotting, looked almost like the zombies that walked behind him.

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

Ghastly, Gaunt, and Ominous

I find a shadow before me.
Should I worry now?
It seems ghastly, gaunt and ominous
but my mind just asks "How".

The shadow approaches me
Making noise as if to speak.
I try in vain to understand
What sounds like just a creak.

Still ghastly, gaunt and ominous
The shadow now looms large.
I hold my ground and wait;
I neither flee nor charge.

But suddenly the rooster crows
And with it comes the sun.
The ghastly, gaunt, and ominous shadow is driven back
As a new day has begun.

[Kalgri Sicaria]

The door of the old house slowly creaked open, the dusk light illuminating the entrance hall and the foot of the grand staircase, ominous and foreboding as it led upwards into the gloom. The interloper's footsteps could be heard as they made their way across the wooden floorboards of the hall, their lamplight flickering in the stale air. The stranger stopped for a moment at the base of the staircase, as if contemplating what ghastly horrors may await them further inside.

Their eyes flicked upwards as they heard a creak from the floor above, but steely resolve grips them as they begin the ascent. At the top of the stair, a gaunt face can be seen peering out of the gloom to the right. The explorer is startled for a moment, then sees the frame, 'Only a painting,' they think to themselves. Then movement, from behind. Not a painting, a mirror, showing your true face, as the last they'll ever see.

[Harry Walles]

How happy is the ominous goodnight!
Does the goodnight make you shiver?
does it?

A sunset, however hard it tries,
Will always be ghastly.
Never forget the offensive and alarming sunset.

The yellow eve sings like cold eyes
Does the eve make you shiver?
does it?

The party that's really zany,
Above all others is the dinner.
A dinner is wacky. a dinner is buffoonish,
a dinner is humorous, however.

A tomorrow, however hard it tries,
Will always be gaunt.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the tomorrow,
Gently it goes - the wasted, the bony, the pinched.

[Louis Walles]

How happy is the ghastly lune!
Down, down, down into the darkness of the lune,
Gently it goes - the macabre, the grisly, the sepulchral.

I cannot help but stop and look at the ominous man.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the man,
Gently it goes - the forbidding, the threatening, the unpropitious.

Amusement is, in its way, the gaunt of recreation.
Never forget the woolly and woolly-headed amusement.

Daydream is poetic girl.
poetic girl is daydream.
Does the daydream make you shiver?
does it?