RavenHappy Halloween!

Be sure to check out my Top 10 Ways Kids Today Can Use Poetry: Halloween Edition from last year.
Poets.org has a page of make-your-own Poet costumes for Halloween: The William Carlos Williams costume idea comes complete with a bowl of plums and a red wheelbarrow full of candy.

See? Even poets can be fun! Who knew.

Here are a few Halloween poems for you:

The Little Ghost

I knew her for a little ghost
That in my garden walked;
The wall is high—higher than most—
And the green gate was locked.

And yet I did not think of that
Till after she was gone—
I knew her by the broad white hat,
All ruffled, she had on.

By the dear ruffles round her feet,
By her small hands that hung
In their lace mitts, austere and sweet,
Her gown's white folds among.

I watched to see if she would stay,
What she would do—and oh!
She looked as if she liked the way
I let my garden grow!

She bent above my favourite mint
With conscious garden grace,
She smiled and smiled—there was no hint
Of sadness in her face.

She held her gown on either side
To let her slippers show,
And up the walk she went with pride,
The way great ladies go.

And where the wall is built in new
And is of ivy bare
She paused—then opened and passed through
A gate that once was there.

–Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

Each night Father fills me with dread
When he sits at the foot of my bed;
I'd not mind that he speaks
In gibbers and squeaks,
But for seventeen years he's been dead.

–Edward Gorey

If you want to read a great long-form ghost poem, I recommend Albert Goldbarth's "The Two Domains" from his book The Beyond.

I love ghost poems…send me yours!