A Poem for Halloween - Barbara Jean Hicks

from the files of children's author and educator
Barbara Jean Hicks

Who knew how many famous poets wrote Halloween poems?! In my search for a piece to mark the holiday, I found poems on my favorite poetry website, www.poets.org, about ghosts, vampires, witches, haunted houses, goblins and other related topics from the likes of Robbie Burns, Christina Rosetti, Shakespeare, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and George Gordon, Lord Byron, among many others. I love this simple poem by one of my favorite American poets, Carl Sandburg. Enjoy, learn from Sandburg's way with words--and have a spooky Halloween!

Theme in Yellow

I spot the hills 
With yellow balls in autumn. 
I light the prairie cornfields 
Orange and tawny gold clusters 
And I am called pumpkins. 
On the last of October 
When dusk is fallen 
Children join hands 
And circle round me 
Singing ghost songs 
And love to the harvest moon; 
I am a jack-o'-lantern 
With terrible teeth 
And the children know 
I am fooling.
       
           --Carl Sandburg

Photo courtesy morguefile.com