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From WANTED ~ A WITCH'S CAT
Wanted ~ a witch's cat.
Must have vigor and spite,
Be expert at hissing,
And good in a fight,
And have balance and poise
On a broomstick at night.
Shelagh McGee
WHO LIVES IN THIS HAUNTED HOUSE?
Who lives in this haunted house?
"I do!" I do!" says the mouse
"See my aunts and all my cousins
scamper through it by the dozens."
Who else might be living here?
"Spiders, spiders, yes my dear!
Our webs grow bigger by the day
No broom or mop sweeps them away."
Who likes this haunted house the most?
"I do!" I do!" says the ghost.
"I can float from room to room,
having fun while spreading gloom.
This haunted house has stairs that creak.
Windows rattle. Hinges squeak.
It's such a lovely place to be
for someone who's a ghost like me!"
Bobbi Katz
LOOK AT THAT!
Look at that!
Ghosts lined up
at the laundromat,
all around the
block.
Each has
bleach
and some
detergent.
Each one seems to
think it
urgent
to take a spin
in a
washing machine
before the
clock
strikes
Halloween!
Lilian Moore
MONSTER STEW
If you are getting tired
Of plain old witches' brew,
Next time you have a party
Try gourmet monster stew.
Put on an old black apron
Borrowed from a witch;
Then scoop in murky water
From a brackish ditch.
Pond slime is the next thing,
A bucketful or two;
But if you don't have pond slime,
Some moldy soup will do.
Now measure in an owl-hoot,
Two grumbles and a groan.
To make it really tasty,
Add an eerie moan.
Now if your guest are monsters,
You cackle while they eat.
They'll say your stew is gruesome,
A most delightful treat!
Judith Kinter
SONG OF THE WITCHES
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.
Macbeth: IV.i. 10-19; 35-38
William Shakespeare
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 walk 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
AN INVITATION
Let's be spooky. Lets have fun!
We'll scare ourselves before we're done
with ghosts and goblins - winds that howl -
Things that fly and things that prowl.
We'll talk about such creepy stuff
until we both get scared enough
to hear things that we cannot see
and see things that just cannot be.
Let's be spooky - you and me.
Bobbi Katz
AUTUMN GHOST SOUNDS
When the moon
rides high,
up overhead -
and I am snug
and warm,
in bed -
in the autumn dark
the ghosts move 'round
making their
mournful,
moaning sound.
I listen to know
when the ghosts
go by.
I hear a wail,
and I hear a sigh.
But I can't quite tell
which I hear
the most -
the wind,
or the wail
of some passing ghost.
Anonymous
GHOST BUS
Underneath the lamppost,
In the middle of the night,
A ghost bus make a silent stop,
A strange and fearful sight.
At the bus top at your corner,
Something big and green climbed down.
It's looking for your bedroom,
And it has searched all over town.
You thought it couldn't find you,
That you were safe and you were sound.
You thought that you could hide,
Where you never could be found.
But now it's almost here,
You know it loves the dark of night.
There's only one thing you can do,
Quick! Turn on the light!
Whew!
Joe Wayman
A MAGIC CHANT
If in the dark you're frightened,
Here's all you have to do.
Say: Igga bigga,
Hunka bunka,
Dinka danka doo.
These words give you protection
From ghosts - and witches, too.
Say: Igga bigga
Hunka bunka,
Dinka danka doo.
So if at night a monster
Should whisper, "I'll get you,"
Yell: Igga bigga
Hunka bunka,
Dinka danka doo.
Samuel Exler
JOHNNY DREW A MONSTER
Johnny drew a monster.
The monster chased him.
Just in time
Johnny erased him.
Lilian Moore
TEENY TINY GHOST
A teeny, tiny ghost
no bigger than a mouse
at most,
lived in a great big house
It's hard to haunt
a great big house
when you're a teeny, tiny ghost
no bigger than a mouse
at most.
He did what he could do.
So every dark and stormy night
the kind that shakes the house with fright -
if you stood still and listened right,
you'd hear a
teen tiny
Boo!
Lilian Moore
HALLOWE'EN INDIGNATION MEETING
A sulky witch and a surly cat
And a scowly owl and a skeleton sat
With a grouchy ghost and a waspish bat,
And angrily snarled and chewed the fat.
It seems they were all upset and riled
That they couldn't frighten the Modern Child,
Who was much too knowing and much too wild
And considered Hallowe'en spooks too mild.
Said the witch, "They call this the human race,
Yet the kiddies inhabit Outer Space;
They bob for comets, and eat ice cream
From flying saucers, to get up steam!"
"I'm a shade of my former self," said the skeleton.
"I shiver and shake like so much gelatine,
Indeed I'm a pitiful sight to see--
I'm scareder of kids than they are of me!"
by Margaret Fishback
HALLOWE'EN
Tonight is the night
When dead leaves fly
Like witches on switches
Across the sky,
When elf and sprite
Flit through the night
On a moony sheen.
Tonight is the night
When leaves make a sound
Like a gnome in his home
Under the ground,
When spooks and trolls
Creep out of holes
Mossy and green.
Tonight is the night
When pumpkins stare
Through sheaves and leaves
Everywhere,
When ghoul and ghost
And goblin host
Dance round their queen.
It's Hallowee'en!
by Harry Behn
HALLOWEEN {too, two}
Who raps at my window?
Who in a white sheet
Runs across the midnight lawn
Without the sound of feet?
What moon grows in the East
So huge and dusky red?
Who howls from the chill within the hill
Where the farmer's hound lies dead?
The dry leaves twist and rattle
Alive in an evil spell.
Down by the pond the man who drowned
Tolls a wavering bell.
The wind has hardly wakened,
Yet flapping through the air
Fly shapes with wings and bony things
And forms with jagged hair.
Who blows at my candle?
Whose fiery grin and eyes
Behind me pass in the looking glass
And make my gooseflesh rise?
Who moved in that shadow?
Who rustles unseen?
With the dark so deep I dare not sleep
All night on Halloween.
by Marnie Pomeroy
QUEEN NEFERTITI
Spin a coin, spin a coin,
All fall down;
Queen Nefertiti
Stalks through the town.
Over the pavements
Her feet go clack
Her legs are as tall
As a chimney stack;
Her fingers flicker
Like snakes in the air,
The walls split open
At her green-eyed stare;
Her voice is thin
As the ghosts of bees;
She will crumble your bones,
She will make your blood freeze.
Spin a coin, spin a coin,
All fall down;
Queen Nefertiti
Stalks through the town.
Anonymous
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.
by Jack Prelutsky
ON HALLOWEEN
On Halloween I'll go to town
And wear my trousers upside down,
and wear my shoes turned inside out
And wear a wig of sauerkraut.
by Shel Silverstein
THREE GHOSTESSES
Three little ghostesses,
Sitting on postesses,
Eating buttered toastesses,
Greasing their fistesses,
Up to their wristesses,
Oh, what beastesses,
To make such feastesses!
Anonymous
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.
by Valerie Worth
GHOULIES AND GHOSTIES
From ghoulies and ghosties,
Long-leggity beasties,
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord deliver us.
An Old Spell
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