Halloween

*Authors are unknown, unless otherwise noted.

Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
~ Mark Twain

I do believe in ghosts, I do, I do, I do.
~From The Wizard of Oz

There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.
~ Colette

Today you can be anything you imagine.
~Flavia

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight
make me a child again just for to-night!
~Elizabeth Akers Allen

Trick or treat, smell my feet,
give me something good to eat!

An orange pumpkin, fat as can be.
Carve a face so he can see.
Put in a candle, light the light.
A jack-o-lantern for Halloween night!

Pumpkin! Pumpkin!
Big and fat
Changed into a
Jack-o-lantern
Just like that!

Jolly wolly pumpkin face
You're happy, tell us why!
"I'd rather be a pumpkin face
And not a pumpkin pie!"

We bought a fat orange pumpkin
The plumpest sort they sell.
We neatly scooped the inside out
And only left the shell.
We carved a funny funny-face
Of silly shape and size,
A pointy nose, a jagged mouth
And two enormous eyes.
We set it in a window
And we put a candle in,
Then lit it up for all to see
Our jack-o'lantern grin.

Everything is black and gold,
Black and gold, tonight;
Yellow pumpkins, yellow moon,
Yellow candlelight;
Jet-black cats with golden eyes,
Shadows black as ink,
Firelight blinking in the dark
With a yellow blink.
Black and gold, black and gold,
Nothing in between--
When the world turns black and gold,
Then it's Halloween!
~Nancy Byrd Turner

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
~Traditional Scottish prayer

I made a funny pumpkin
For everyone to see.
It looked so big and terrible
It even frightened me!

Old witch Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With moss and slime,
and poisonous vine,
and toadstools all in a row.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and bling-worms sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
~William Shakespeare, Macbeth: IV.i. 10-19; 35-38

A Halloween Party
On Halloween I'll wear a sheet,
To scare the people that I meet.
All covered up from head to toe,
Even my friends will never know!
Jack-o-lantern smiling bright,
Witches flying in the night,
Ghosts and goblins, cats and bats,
Witches with their funny hats,
A full moon is a must
And don't forget the Hallow Dust!!

A Halloween Pumpkin
They chose me from my brother:
"That's the nicest one," they said,
And they carved me out a face
And put a candle in my head;
And they set me on the doorstep.
Oh, the night was dark and wild;
But when they lit the candle,
Then I smiled!
~ Dorothy Aldis

A Pumpkin Seed
A pumpkin seed's a little thing,
When it is planted in the spring,
But, oh, the fun that it can bring!
At Halloween it turns into
A pumpkin pie for me and you,
Or jack-o'-lantern that says "Boo!"
~Alice Crowell Hoffman

Halloween Fun
Tang of cider in the air,
Spooks and goblins everywhere,
Cauldrons bubbling in the night,
Jack-o'-lanterns burnign bright
Gypsies stirring steaming brew.
On the fences black ats mew.
Bats in darkened corners hide.
Lurid witches broomsticks ride.
Skulls and crossbones act as hosts
To rows and rows of stately ghosts.
That's Halloween!
~ Fern Curtis

Halloween Night
Close the shutters, lock the doors
Here come the demons across the moors!
They are coming by hundreds, pale and ripped
Including those skeletons from the crypt.
They come from graves upon a hill
Waiting to take you against your will.
Vampires and ghosts, burn them all you want,
But they'll come back to scare you and haunt.
If you see a strange and scary sight,
It's all because it's Halloween night!

It's Halloween
It's Halloween! It's Halloween!
The moon is full and bright
And we shall see what can't be seen
On any other night.
Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.
In masks and gowns we haunt the street
And knock on doors for trick or treat.
Tonight we are the king and queen,
For tonight it's Halloween!
~Jack Prelutsky

Jack-o'Lantern
From the field
I was chosen
because
I am squat
and charmingly fat,
the pride of the patch
in my bright pumpkin orange,
and you can't be any
oranger than that.
Yet now, I don't know...
I'm not what I was,
though I feel a glow
from my crown to my chin.
Why must I wear this
brainless grin?
Why such an empty feeling within?
Is it that thing
they call
Hollow-een?
~Constance Levy

Monsters Do Not Scare Me Much
Monsters do NOT scare me much,
Nor do goblins and ghosts and such.
But on Halloween night
Please hold my hand tight -
I don't want to be out of touch.
~Beatrice Schenk de Regnier

My Haunted House
My house is getting spooky.
There's a ghost outside the door.
There's a skeleton in the closet,
and a spider on the floor.
There's a bat beside the fireplace.
There's a pumpkin on the stair.
There's a monster in the bathtub,
and a black cat on the chair.
There's a creepy crowd at my house.
I'm the witch they want to meet.
It's Halloween at my house,
and we're going to TRICK or TREAT!!
~Virginia Obrecht Dulworth

October Nights
October means it's Hallowe'en
When pumpkins don their faces,
And moans and groans and rattling bones
Are heard in haunted places.
When witches in their pointed hats
Go riding on their brooms,
And nighttime wears a velvet cloak
Of mystery and doom.
When graveyards start to come alive
With spirits of the dead,
It's such a lovely time of year
I think I'll stay in bed.
~Harriet Cooper

On Halloween
The witches fly
Across the sky,
The owls go, "Who? Who? Who?"
The black cats yowl
And green ghosts howl,
"Scary Halloween to you!"
~ Nina Willis Walter

Pompous Mr. Pumpkin
Pompous Mr. Pumpkin,
You needn't look so wise,
Perched upon a picket fence
Staring with your eyes--
Needn't think that I'm afraid
Of your fearful frown
Or your great big glaring teeth
Or your mouth, turned down;
Mr. Pumpkin, run from you?
No, sir--no indeed--
Because I knw you long ago
When you were just a seed!
~ Elsie Melchert Fowler

Pumpkin
After its lid
Is cut, the slick
Seeds and stuck
Wet strings
Scooped out,
Walls scraped
Dry and white,
Face carved, candle
Fixed and lit,
Light creeps
Into the thick
Rind: giving
That dead orange
Vegetable skull
Warm skin, making
A live head
To hold its
Sharp gold grin.
~ Valerie Worth

Pumpkin Head
We bought a pumpkin big and round
that lived the summer through
without an eye to look at things
and now it looks through two.
It used to be all dark inside
when growing on the vine,
but now it has a toothy smile
and face that's full of shine.
~Aileen Fisher

Shivers
Bushes quiver
where shadows lean,
and not a sliver
of moon is seen.
Near the river
some goblins (green)
with a witch in front
and a ghost in between
Make me sh..i..vvvver,
but I am keen
about the shivers
of Halloween.
~Aileen Fisher

Shivery Yells   (to the tune of SILVER BELLS)
We're on sidewalks, we're on porches ,
Dressed in costumes to scare.
Through the city we're ringing the doorbells
Trick or treating, candy eating,
Gooey stuff in our hair
But the most fun is shrieking out loud:
Shivery yells, Shivery yells
That's the Halloween nitty-gritty
Moan and groan, leaves us alone
Halloween's just one night a year.

Skeleton Parade
The skeletons are out tonight,
they march about the street,
With bony bodies, bony heads
and bony hands and feet.
Bony bony bony bones
with nothing in between,
Up and down and all around
they march on Halloween.
~Jack Prelutsky

Jack-o'-lantern
Jack-o'-lantern, Jack-o'-lantern,
orange-front-and-back-o'-lantern,
sitting-on-the-sill-o'-lantern,
where's your sister Jill-o'-lantern?
~Aileen Fischer