“The Scavenger's Ledger by Stewart Stafford The scratch of a nib on paper Tells me I am alive, I think. At this Heaven/Hell midpoint— A torn throat for a poison drink. The horizon lit up again tonight, Rebels fight for futile freedom, Happiness, a cold, distant stranger, No gifted transfusion to bleed him. Willingly failing the audition of life, Food appears to have lost all taste, A numb tongue or cheap ingredients, I cannot let one crumb go to waste. They’ve finally cured me of love, Stripped every vestige of me away, Carrying my grave upon my back, Their snail slithers from day to day. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” PhilosophyDespairIsolationExistentialismDystopianGothicTotalitarianismContemporary PoetryDark PoetryOrwellian Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Impossible Banquet by Stewart Stafford Awakened by a stinging sun, Radiant wings of flame and gold, I breathe in dawn’s virgin hopes, With icy shards of doubting cold. Am I not my parents' child? Lost my way on a freedom roam, Invitation to a tempting feast, Over family, love, and home. Trapped within the world's crosshairs, Locked down with time to burn, Casting runestones, but too late, For visible escape, I yearn. An obsessive lady by my side, A judge of karma infernal, She took my life with her own hand, Bequeathing a wound eternal. Tomorrow’s hopes are now a ghost, No merciful release to illuminate, I wish to scrub away the past, A vain rebirth to change my fate. But I’m caught in the Reaper's maw, I weep for you who procrastinate, Sold my soul on Devil's Bridge, Then dragged through a fiery gate. Hope, community, society crash, Towering feats of grotesquery, You may not grieve for me who's gone, Time's cruel critic is all you see. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.” PainFamilyFateMysteryRegretHorrorTragedyGothicDystopiaBohemian Rhapsody Author:Stewart Stafford
“Forced Perspective by Stewart Stafford She unscrewed my eyeballs with daggers, as she had with her father before, no doubt. Fractured the irises so I saw things her way, jamming them back in so they wouldn’t pop out. It took time before focus felt no longer strange, as she asked if we were now lockstep viewers. I told her I’d let her know the moment I did — and suggested she take a walk in the sewers. She took umbrage at that, giving me black eyes, reverting at last to an optical divorce. She tapped out — project fail — and we drifted apart, mutually, of course. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” DarkPowerRelationshipPsychologicalIronyControlSatireGothicGaslightingReverse Engineering Author:Stewart Stafford
“Posed In Vein by Stewart Stafford O Stephanie! In your cruciform puppetry, Bloody veins stretched out wiry To relive in a bondage diary. Subject mapped as inked skin she wears, Decorating, desecrating olden snares. Each needle kiss, a line defined, A pinprick story rushes her mind. By candlelight, in her coven deep, Secrets webbed flies must keep, Spelled out straight in her hexing book, Consort Lenore gives a cryptic look. They tug the strings, the marionette, Caught in her captor's welcome net. In artificial light, a social moth's mien, A wrought, posed, fetishistic scene. The knots are tight, the ropes defined; Bodily and in private mind. This mutual art, a supplicant's plea, Cut into her Kinbaku diary. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” PainBondageEroticGothicOccultBdsmDark PoetryBody HorrorBody ArtKinbaku Author:Stewart Stafford
“A Ravaging Sentinel's Vow by Stewart Stafford State your love for me now — Agreed, a cracked heart pledge, Defying your many flaws, martyring me to betrayal's dredge. At your darkest dawn — My fealty oath holds true, when every back is turned, a redeeming ravager’s purview. A sentinel’s dust trail climbs high, hooves thunder; the sundial stops, A vow declared, enemies routed, disaster reined on teetering clifftops. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” LovePoetryBetrayalLoyaltyRedemptionHeroismGothicDark PoetryVowsEpic Poetry Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Blood Supper by Stewart Stafford Nightcrawler leaves their dirt bed, Seeking an essential blood supper, Cloaked in regal Stygian armour, Bar one chink in the left chest area. All the experience of centuries used, Lives lived long before their victims, Stalking stacked in a predator's favour, Shock overwhelms when blindsided. The infected victim then becomes one, With their undead attacker, connected, Sharing their contagion and obsessions, In a parasitic void betwixt life and death. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.” BloodHorrorVampireVampiresSupernaturalGothicUndeadDraculaHorror PoetryBloodsucker Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Mourner by Stewart Stafford Waxen candles flickered, burning, I found myself alone in mourning, Instinct urged me to turn around, Insistent feet kept walking down. A lonely casket at the altar lay, Not a soul came to mourn or pray, A surge of pity pierced my heart, Incense bade me dearly depart. Empty pews where no one stayed, I slowly illuminated the coffin shade, Blackout! Icy hands gripped tight: “Welcome to our endless night!” © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.” DeathChurchHorrorScaryMourningGhostsSupernaturalGothicCoffinThe Dead Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Chattering Season by Stewart Stafford Hear a fearsome banshee's wail, From a dank bog or Celtic dale, Like the pulling of the rat's tail, In the whistle of a thrashing gale. In this skittish son of Mc's room, A death knell tolls out his doom, A cursed shadow now does loom, Her spirit bride's unwilling groom. The stark evening's grim messenger, She's a maelstrom's fatal passenger, Howls from last breath's harbinger, No dowry for this eternal dowager. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.” DeathHorrorScaryParanormalSupernaturalGothicBansheesCeltic MythologyCeltic SpiritualityBanshee Author:Stewart Stafford
“Dying Hours by Stewart Stafford All debts were settled on Christmas Eve, Fail to do so, and there’d be no reprieve, In the dying flame of a guttering candle, Monies got paid, and cash got handled. When the last customer left to journey home, Quinn, the shop owner, found himself alone, He stared at pooling shadows, no one there, Told himself to hurry, be with those who care. As he closed up, something screamed out, A figure from out of the dark began to shout, A man with no eyes begged alms for the dead, Or any old soup with a thick slice of bread. Quinn said he was a business, not a charity, The man’s eyes opened with some clarity, “Very well,” the man said, “Nothing’s free,” “I’ll drag your soul to Hell, come with me!” © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.” GhostChristmasGothicChristmas SpiritChristmas EveScroogeA Christmas CarolChristmastimeChristmas PoemChristmas Poetry Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Penultimate Hotel by Stewart Stafford Enter sluggishly into the lobby, A banquet is in progress in the restaurant, They’re regurgitating reality from within, And then eating their young. An apocalyptic porter has radioactive cubes in the lift, Housekeeping will have ten thousand years of light, But the sheets in the rooms, Will all turn to cream cheese. The cooks in the kitchen are breaking bones and rules, Creating a cake that stretches to infinity, Babel babble with protesting eggs, All baked in a hellfire oven. The concierge gives out tips, And tells guests they are awful and to leave, While simultaneously tattooing diabolical potion recipes, Inside a willing bellhop’s eyelids. © 2021, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” HotelGothicDark HumorSurrealismWhimsicalDark HumourBritish HumourBlack ComedyBritish HumorFawlty Towers Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Girl At The Lake by Stewart Stafford She stood at her post rigidly again, By the lakeside in a white dress, Staring sadly down into the water, Wind left hair and clothes unruffled. I waved and called out to her then, She looked up at me and through me, No recognition from her mourner's mask, She went back to staring at lapping water. Jumped in my car to check on her welfare, Driving over to her sole sentinel's mark, Nobody around, just ripples kissing the shore, Arriving home, I saw her at the water's edge. She plunged into the lake in plain sight of me, I dived in with my shoes on to save her, Not suicide, she tricked my life from me, "You can't leave now, darling," as I drowned. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.” MysteryGhostGhostsGothicLakeMysterious WomanLakesideMysterious GirlWhat Lies BeneathLady In The Lake Author:Stewart Stafford
“Snowbound Condemnation by Stewart Stafford My vigil for a shabby scarecrow, Cruciform in a snowdrift field, Its saviour-suited arms clawing At corvids, frozen heels to Heaven. Its mouth a wailing O-shape, Lamenting deafened ears of corn, Resuscitation for a fool's errand, In a hysterical chorus of biting gales. Haunting a sycamore tree, complicit, I witnessed desolation's spectacle, Half-expecting a condemned miracle, This pilgrim genuflected into green slush. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” PoetryWinterNarrativeMelancholyExistentialGothicSymbolicDesolationScarecrowReligious Imagery Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Poe Toaster by Stewart Stafford They call me The Poe Toaster, A sixty-year mourner, no boaster, With roses and cognac, I paid homage, To gothic Quarles’ eternal foggage. Some call me ghoul, stalker, graver, Obsessed fan, tombstone trader, Let him sleep unbroken, still his ghost, Tomahawk, overdue a tribute toast. Three roses; in-law, Eddy and wife, Cognac, exorbitant luxury in life, Relax, for I was kind, my friend, Pouring amontillado until the end. Why I stopped, if I'm woman or man, Are mysteries for C. Auguste Dupin, Shipwrecked on Night’s Plutonian shore, Allied with the silken darkness of yore. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.” MysteryGothicHomageGraveEdgar Allan PoeMournersEdgar Allen PoeEdgar Allan Poe QuotesEdgar Allan Poe PoemThe Poe Toaster Author:Stewart Stafford
“Owl Hollow Road by Stewart Stafford On a bracing night walk, On leafy Owl Hollow Road, A raspy voice whispered to me, Like a deep-croaking old toad. I moved rapidly on my path, And then heard phantom feet, Looked around, empty space, Only silence replaced the beat. At my most pressing pace now, A shadow pointed past my shoulder, An SUV slammed into my side, And I broke my back on a boulder. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved” WalkingHorrorScaryGhostParanormalWarningHalloweenSupernaturalGothicHorror Poetry Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Forbidden Place by Stewart Stafford Bypass the chateau on the hill, For, as dusk falls, horrors creep, Griffins and gargoyles fly and flay, And grotesque statues come alive. Badinage becomes shrieks and roars, Shrill warnings for the straying and foolish, Cats as big as panthers stalk and slay, As their homicidal master flogs their fur. Wandering werewolves fetch human bones, A savage rampage beneath a Hunter's Moon, As the dawn routine reasserts its dominance, Denizens of night bathe in darkness's arms. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.” HorrorScaryWarningHalloweenGothicWerewolvesGothic HorrorHorror PoetryCreepypastaHaunted Castles Author:Stewart Stafford
“Spring-Heeled Jack Is In The Lane by Stewart Stafford Go indoors, children, before dark falls, A fiend comes hideous and inhumane, Tell your mother not to answer the door, For Spring-Heeled Jack is in the lane. Is it spectre, beast or demon? A trick of light to fool the brain? Blue flames spew from hellish maw, Spring-Heeled Jack growls in the lane. No one can unsee its monstrous face, Nor its claws of steel that bloodstain, Its haunting cackle freezes victims, Spring-Heeled Jack leaps from the lane. © Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.” ScaryParanormalSupernaturalGothicFolkloreNursery RhymesHorror PoetryNursery RhymeHorror PoemSpring Heeled Jack Author:Stewart Stafford
“Halloween is a celebration of the inversion of reality and a necessary Gothic hat-tip to the darker aspects of life, death and ourselves.” HalloweenGothicDarkness And LightSamhainMacabreGothic HorrorHalloween QuotesOctober QuotesAll Hallows EveAll Hallows Author:Stewart Stafford
“The Revenant by Stewart Stafford The golden ball in the sky adopts an adios hue, And kisses the world a fond adieu, The predators that thrive in its absence appear, Their shadows and eyeshine our darkest fears. The Revenant stirs from subterranean limbo, With bloodied fangs and glowing eyes akimbo, To survive and stagger the bloodlust way, Until fasting begins at break of day. Hear the tap at your window, The solitary song, Embrace the contagion, No matter how wrong. Feel the frigid skin, The piercing bite, And live in their troth, At one with night. Then recline in their grave, In eternal embrace, And rise at sundown, A gothic Queen of Disgrace. © Stewart Stafford, 2021. All rights reserved.” PoetryPoemHorrorVampireVampiresGothicPoems Of Blood And PassionHalloween PoemHalloween PoemsRevenant Author:Stewart Stafford
“To me, Gothic fiction is the literary representation of the stormy gloom of the British Isles.” BritainIrelandGothicGothic FictionGothic HorrorWeather QuoteBritish IslesGothic Horror FictionIreland Rain Author:Stewart Stafford
“Unholy by Stewart Stafford Horrors walk from out a dream, Apparitions dare reality’s seam, Gnarly fingers excavate blame, Sanity stolen in a hellish flame. No way to think or even breathe, Or kind worldly goods bequeath, For Time’s skeletal fingers snap, Catching souls in a fiendish trap. Visions boxed, then assail again, A phantom grin is no one’s friend, Gasp out awakening perspiration, Sun falls in creeping desperation. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.” DreamDreamsKarmaNightmareSurrealGothicSurrealismNightmaresApparitionsHorror Poetry Author:Stewart Stafford
“Nothing Man by Stewart Stafford I return to plague night's wanderers, Dark hours and thoughts personified, Driven by this scorching crusade, Agitation flooding my skewed brain. Many have tried to kill me and failed, They think material weapons can work, I am immaterial and absorb punishment; An elemental fire they cannot extinguish. No targets are off limits to me, I fear, Aye, I am an equal opportunities predator, Praying for my victims as I prey upon them, Then am I consumed, at one with darkness. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.” PoetryDarknessHorrorPsychologicalExistentialSupernaturalGothicPersonificationDark PoetryAntihero Author:Stewart Stafford