Grackles cackle. Crows glow. Ghouls drool.
It’s Halloween 2015!
(If you are seeking the Poetry Friday link click-clack, scit-scat over to
Check It Out’s post, which beautifully looks ahead to Veteran’s Day.)
My favorite goblin-night reading for teens & adults is a privately
printed poetry chapbook, ON ANY DARK AND SPOOKY NIGHT.
It was a gift to me in 1992 from the poet author, Audrey Parente. It
is one of the first orange items I reach for each year to decorate
the house.
The spine-tinglers in Audrey’s collection are creepy
& kooky & make adults shiver.
Here is a less-ghoulish poem for the wee ones.
When Goblins Sing
by Audrey Parente
in the chapbook, ON ANY DARK AND SPOOKY NIGHT
Oh, when the goblins sing,
your skin begins to crawl
with bumpy, goosey flesh
which drives you up a wall.
But scary as this is,
if they seem down the hall,
don’t you worry dear,
for they’re not there at all!
©1992 Audrey Parente
I love how I always go back & read it again to see what
she did there! Her Halloween poems are perfect presents.
Fortunately we held a Halloween poetry partee last weekend,
before All Hallow’s Eve. This way we would be free this weekend to enjoy
some of the many bubbling cauldrons of festivals & treats our town puts on.
But this year we are both under a sick spell (bad sore throats, etc.) now
at Halloween & feel fortunate to have these pre-Halloween memories.
The first set of images are from the partee.
Outdoors images in the second group were
made at our nearby park. It provides a naturally ghostly atmosphere
with rugged live oaks, swaying Spanish moss (not truly a moss but an
epiphyte) & an annual scarecrow row. The artists who create them
are local folks who love Halloween.
My Halloween picture books for young readers can fill a bottomless caludron but include –
TRICK OR TREAT, SMELL MY FEET by Lisa Desimini, TRICK OR TREAT, OLD ARMADILLO, by Larry Dane Brimner, with illustrations from Dominic Catalano, THE MONSTORE by Tara Lazar & HAMPIRE by Sudipta Bardhan Quallen.
It was a great party, Jan, Even if you were in the opening stage of a swan dive into this fall’s dread disease. Ray and I both had it and have both finally staggered to our feet, for us in time to hand out candy and for me to sing for the Halloween Party at LeMoyne. Good timing!
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Good thing you celebrated early! Sorry about the sickness spell (I’m chugging AirBorne in the hopes that I can ward off the same spell that’s been haunting classroom and home…)
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Sending Immunity Charms to you (tho they quit for me after holding things at bay awhile.)
Happy Hot Tea to you!
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What a lovely way to celebrate Halloween, with a spectacular spooktacle! Hope you feel better soon!
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Hope your holiday is a treat, Brenda!
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Thanks! It was fun.
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Get well, soon, Jan! I love the scarecrows, have had students create them in the past, such fun! And it is so nice that you have a Halloween book of poems to return to each year. Hope you’ll find yourself feeling better & enjoy that spooky evening tomorrow night!
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Happy Hulaweeeeen, Linda!
Bet those scarecrows were flapdoodle special.
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