I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o’-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know I am fooling.

– Theme in Yellow by Carl Sandburg, first published in Chicago Poems, 1916

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– “Incantation” by George Parsons Lathrop

Categories: Poetry and Prose

Tags: autumn, Carl Sandburg, fall, halloween, Halloween poems, Halloween poetry, poems, poetry, pumpkins