Holloween

essay with poem and videos

i don’t much like Halloween anymore, or more so the extended season of it with all the lawn decorations, hence the not a typo title. I find it mostly shallow entertainment, but ok the kids have fun dressing up and such like; i have good kid memories of being Harpo Marx with a big coat and a horn tucked in, and wearing a fancy bull fighter’s costume that a Spanish business partner of my dad’s gifted me; (nowadays i wouldn’t have anything to do with the so-called sport if you paid me).

And as a friend once mentioned, the holiday leaves a trail of trash. But along with that, now that i think about it, perhaps my biggest beef is with the adults who spend seemingly hundreds, perhaps a thousand or more dollars for all manner of ghoulish yard kitsch, including what seems like 20-foot tall werewolfs and skeletons adorning graveyards. At times it’s just amusing, but overall during ‘the season’ i put on my race horse blinders and avoid looking.

“Across the US, the National Retail Foundation (NRF) expects 2023's Halloween spending to hit a record $12.2bn, exceeding last year's record of $10.6bn.”

Where’s the feed the homeless and those scraping by, and the critters foraging for foods as the cold creeps in?

Where’s the appreciation for and tuning-in with autumnal seasonal changes?

Where’s the time to ponder the slow-motion combo of natural beauty and decay?

The pagan root of Holloween is Samhain, when the veils between worlds are supposedly thinner and the spirits need fed. If so, then this is worthy of deeper study as to how both a common person or shaman can communicate with and receive communications from ancestors and the spirit world. Personally that’s something i work at year round.

“Also in an effort to frighten away mischief-causing or malevolent spirits, in the Middle Ages, Celts began carving turnips with frightening faces. The families placed the turnips in their windows and doorways as protection.”

That reminded of:
“In almost every Buddhist country, the temple gates are guarded by two or more fearsome figures.

”Why is this?

”Explanations abound. One that I am particularly fond of (aside from the obvious idea that they are there to "guard" the temple) is that anyone who tries to enter the temple with a burden of negativity will find him- or herself unable to get past the guardians. Leave it all outside, they say, and enter with a pure Heart.”

(“Demon Guardian statue decorating the Buddhist temple Wat Arun in Bangkok, Thailand”)

The things i do like are: carving a pumpkin with a smiley face and lighting a candle inside it, and toasting the seeds till they’re, unlike the leaves, crunchily edible with a pinch of salt. And the other thing is writing a poem.

A tip of the hat to Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. from whom i got the idea many years ago to write a poem each Halloween… and he would make the trick-or-treaters hear the poem before getting their treat which included a copy of the poem. One year i was interrupted by a iirc 6 year old with ‘Are we going to get the candy?’ And that’s part of the point, to get kids to stop and listen, get a taste of the arts, and earn their treat, not just – even if innocently – gimme-gimme, fill my looty bag!

Max was a Nassau County Poet Laureate, a bird lover (ornithologist), nature preserver, historian, teacher, Newsday reporter, activist, and beloved mentor to innumerable poets.

Feel free to share my poem, and you’re welcome to print copies and leave a pile at the door, or make kids listen to you read the poem before getting the treat. It’s about the only time i do not put my name on the poem, as i prefer the little kids (and parents) and teens to simply read the poem.

    Too Many, Too Much

Too many spooks
spoil the witches' broth,
in this fast-paced world
slow down like a sloth
and don't let that ghost scare you
it's only white cloth!

Too much candy
can give you false teeth,
the surface is only half the story
look for what's underneath
and in a couple of months
smell that fir and pine holiday wreath.

Too many loose wrappers
makes too much trash,
if you dive in the pool now
you'll feel a cold splash,
instead greet the sun in the morning
as that fiery ball rises up with a flash.

PS
According to the Nassau County Poet Laureate Society:
”Max’s love of poetry and his philosophy that ‘if you can enjoy poetry, you can write poetry’ led him to establish poetry programs throughout Nassau County.”

To watch Max Wheat with his typical dynamic reading, two of his poems. Click the poem “Titles”:

“Limulus” 2-minutes

“Grandfather Loved the Salt Marshes” 6-minutes