Halloween Poems for Kids

It’s time for Halloween poetry! Here are some of my elementary students’ favorites poems about the holiday:

MR. MACKLIN'S JACK O’LANTERN

by David McCord

Mr. Macklin takes his knife

And carves the yellow pumpkin face:

Three holes bring eyes and nose to life,

The mouth has thirteen teeth in place.

Then Mr. Macklin just for fun

Transfers the corn-cob pipe from his

Wry mouth to Jack’s, and everyone

Dies laughing!

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/mr-macklins-jack-olantern

(From ONE AT A TIME—Little, Brown, 1974)

ON HALLOWEEN

by Aileen Fisher

We mask our faces

and wear strange hats

and moan like witches

and screech like cats

and jump like goblins

and thump like elves

and almost manage

to scare ourselves.

( From OUT IN THE DARK AND DAYLIGHT—Harper & Row, 1980)

LOOK AT THAT!

by Lilian Moore

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!

(From SEE MY LOVELY POISON IVY—Atheneum, 1975)

THE WITCHES’ RIDE

by Karla Kuskin

Over the hills
Where the edge of the light
Deepens and darkens
To ebony night,
Narrow hats high
Above yellow bead eyes,
The tatter-haired witches
Ride through the skies.
Over the seas
Where the flat fishes sleep
Wrapped in the slap of the slippery deep,
Over the peaks
Where the black trees are bare,
Where bony birds quiver
They glide through the air.
Silently humming
A horrible tune,
They sweep through the stillness
To sit on the moon.

(From DOGS & DRAGONS, TREES & DREAMS—Harper & Row, 1980)

pumpkin

by Valerie Worth

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.

(From ALL THE SMALL POEMS—Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987)

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Tricia has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.