Halloween Poetry, A Melancholy Season, and More Thoughts as We Move Into Darkness

Pumpkin Display with flowers

Halloween and Poetry

My traditional Happy Halloween greeting feels muted this year, as our country grieves the unnecessary and tragic killings in Pittsburgh and Louisville, deals with the true horror of people who dare to stand up publicly to Trump being sent pipe bombs. Many of my friends do not feel safe, and I cannot blame them. All I can do is vote, and encourage you to vote, and send money to anti-bigotry causes across the country, and try to spread love instead of hate.

But I usually post at least one spooky Halloween poem so I’ll post one, “Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales,” from Field Guide to the End of the World. (And for more Halloween-appropriate reading, check out the lunacy issue and moon poems from Escape into Life I posted about in the last week.)

Season of Melancholy, Changing Leaves, and Moving into Darkness

Yes, the darkness has figuratively and literally moved in here in the Seattle area, where it’s dark now at 6:00 PM and after Sunday, ouch, it’ll be dark at 5:00 PM. The news has been relentlessly dark, with the hate crimes leaving my heart feeling especially heavy. We are supposed to be a nation that welcomes immigrants instead of fearing them, and supports its diverse mix of religions, races, heritages, cultures. If you are for those things, and against people seeking to hurt and kill others simply because they are different, please get out and vote before November 6.

November is typically a tough month to find the joy in living in the Pacific Northwest – a time of shortening days, mostly filled with driving rain. But it’s not all melancholy and darkness. Meanwhile, some pictures of local scenes that might cheer you up: some snow geese mixing with the local Canadian geese and their hybrid babies in a Woodinville yard, me in my yard with the maple trees, and me and Glenn in front of some pumpkins.

As the world turns towards darkness, I want to keep my eyes on the light. I’ve been writing poems about the end of the world again. Tomorrow I’ll be dressing up as Poe’s “The Raven” and handing out candy to the local kids, maybe playing a few vintage Buffy the Vampire episodes. I will wish you a happy Halloween, as happy as possible, and not to give in to the despair that seems so easy this time of year. We have to work harder to look for reasons to hope, to feel there may be better days ahead, and offer help and support to those who are struggling.

Me with my mom’s beloved 100-year-old copy of the Complete Works of Poe I read as a kid.

Glenn and I dressed for Halloween as Poe’s The Raven and a mad scientist –

As promised, here’s a picture of me dressed as Poe’s “The Raven” and Glenn as a mad scientist…Have a happy Halloween!