Poetry was the birthplace of our more civilized vampire, yet for the most part, we now watch vampires in novels and through visuals media (movies and television), moving them far away from their original genre where they were just one step from what we would term “Zombies;” intensely interested in their own survival and not at all interested in non-human blood.

Oh, vampires made a brief reappearance in 1970’s poetry after Anne Rice’s novels became popular, but like so much of that era’s arts, the attention was more on the “art” than on clearly communicating emotions and narratives. Or perhaps the issue with the 1970’s poetry (and I am talking first-person “I” here) was that the stuff that garnered publication was the same stuff that still comes out of the ivory towers, simply written too abstractly for my more earthly taste.

Given the upsurge in the entire vampire genre over the past year and the changing ideas of the characters of the living dead (sparkly and all…), I know there must be some poets out there that are producing QUALITY work; my standards of quality are, I admit, highly subjective. I want poems that present a cohesive thought producing ideas that can be discussed – are not ephemeral in the same sorts of ways Kipling’s “The Vampire” was not ephemeral. I want vampire poems in which every word is chosen to elicit the overarching emotion of the poem, yet is still working towards the good of the whole poem. And I want poetry that is interesting in its presentation of the vampire/victim relationship. The ones submitted that I am publishing are honestly those that I, personally, find appealing. They are wrestling with life and death, good and evil, eternal and ephemeral, hunter and prey, and the most important – to me – human as food source versus human as love source.

Paradise by Rebecca Gillespie

In her free vampire poem, "Paradise," Rebecca Gillespie questions the meaning of paradise, a place of eternal party. Clicking here will open it.

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Christmas Vampire Hiauku by Melissa Holler

Click here to open poems

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Sex and Blood by Leslie Ormandy

Click here to open the poem

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The Dark Hunter by Tanya Wagner

click here to open the free poem

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Come My Dark Angel Prince by Angel Fire (December Poem)

Click here to open the Poem. "Come my Dark Angel Prince," by Dragon Fire yearns to find the vampire love our society is celebrating. Written by a young poet from New Zealand .

November: "Opalite Moon" by Isabelle

This poem by Isabelle features a a vampire who is a "real" vampire, one who has not been defanged and tamed; the vampire of tradition, hungry, smart, and eternal.

October: "She Walks in Beauty" by Byron and Leslie Ormandy

The Vampire Walks in Beauty is my take on Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty Like the Night". Given Bryons love of vampires, I am surprised he missed out making her a vamnpire on this poem.

September: Kiss of a Thousand Years Past: A Vampire Poem by Kim Sanders

Kim Sander's, in her modern vampire poem "Kiss of a Thousand Years Past" embraces the modern idea of a romantic relationship .with an eternal undying creature

August: Interview by Kirsten Laulainen: A modern vampire poem

"Interview" by: Kirsten Laulainen is a modern vampire poem epitomizing the quality that twenty-first century poets can bring to a timeless topic.