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ALL HALLOWE'EN by Pauline Clark
Witch and warlock all abroad
Revels keep by field and yard.
In the firelight
of the farm
Boy and maiden one by one
Place their chestnuts in the grate
And for omens quietly wait;
To a
string their apples tie,
Twirl them till they fallen lie;
Those whose fruits fall in a hurry,
They shall be the
first to marry.
Witch and warlock all abroad
Revels keep by field and yard.
Apples from the beam hang
down
To be caught by mouth alone,
Mugs of ale on Nut-Crack Night
And many a tale of ghost and sprite,
Come
to cheer and chill the heart,
While the candles faint and start,
While the flickering firelight paints
Pictures
of the hallowed saints.
Witch and warlock all abroad
Revels keep by field and yard.
GHOSTS by Harry Behn
A cold and starry darkness moans
And settles wide and still
Over a jumble of tumbled
stones
Dark on a darker hill.
An owl among those shadowy walls,
Gray against gray
Of ruins and brittle
weeds, calls
And a soundless swoops away.
Rustling over scattered stones
Dancers hover and sway,
Drifting
among their own bones
Like the webs of the Milky Way.
THE BIRD OF THE NIGHT by Randall Jarrell
A shadow is floating through the moonlight.
Its wings don't make a sound.
Its claws are long, its beak is bright.
Its eyes try all the corners of the night.
It calls and calls: al
the air swells and heaves
And washes up and down like water.
The ear that listens to th owl believes
In death.
The bat beneath the eaves.
The mice beneath the stone are still as death.
The owl's air washes them like water.
The owl goes back and forth inside the night,
And the night holds its breath.
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