The Haunted House

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by Charles Ghigna

Halloween Night by Charles GhignaThe haunted house is such a scream
Because tonight is Halloween.

The creaking door is open wide
And so we slowly peek inside.

We tiptoe in and hold our breath
(Because we’re really scared to death.)

Two mummies greet us at the door
(Or maybe three, or was it four.)

They lead us to the living room
Through smoky clouds of dewy doom,

Then down a hall where spiders spin
Giant webs to catch us in.

Lost among the mournful maze
We wander through this haunted haze.

We climb some stairs into a place
Where eyes float by without a face.

And then a witch with eyes aglow
Grabs us as we start to go.

She holds us back and with a shout,
“I’ve got you now, there’s no way out!”

We hear our hearts pound in our ears
While fighting back a flood of tears.

We break away and then we hide
And wish that we had stayed outside.

Then suddenly across the floor
A flash of light leads to a door.

A pumpkin shines its candlelight
And points the way back to the night.

Then once outside we start to grin–
‘Cause now we want to go back in!

Copyright © 2003 Charles GhignaFrom the book Halloween Night: Twenty-One Spooktacular Poems. Running Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.

About this Poem

“Halloween Night” was written about taking our son and his friends to visit a local haunted house.

About The Author

Children's Poet Charles Ghigna

Photo by Brigid Galloway

Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) is an award-winning poet, children’s author, speaker, and nationally syndicated feature writer who helps promote the love of poetry and children’s literature throughout the world. He is the author of more than 5,000 poems and 60 books from Random House, Disney, Hyperion, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Abrams, Boyds Mills, Charlesbridge, Capstone and other publishers. His books have been featured on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America,” PBS and NPR. His poems appear in hundreds of textbooks and anthologies, and in magazines for adults and children from The New Yorker and Harper’s to Highlights and Cricket. His poems also appear in the national SAT and ACT tests.

Ghigna served as poetry editor of The English Journal for the National Council of Teachers of English, editorial advisor for the U.S. Kids magazines, and nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation. He has presented poetry readings at the Library of Congress, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the American Library in Paris, the International Schools of South America, and at hundreds of schools, colleges, conferences, libraries, book fairs, and literary events throughout the U.S. and overseas.

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15 responses to “The Haunted House”

  1. Irene Latham says:

    Oh, this takes me back to the haunted house days… the fear and then the wanting to be scared again certainly rings true!

  2. Oh, me too! We did Halloween up big in our house – my brother and I transformed our 70s ranch house into a haunted house and charged a dime admission to other kids in the neighborhood. ;0) Thanks for sharing!

  3. Tara says:

    Oh, what fun! I used to take my kids to a haunted house every Fall, and this brought back some wonderful, if spooky, memories.

  4. Marileta says:

    Everybody needs a case of the shivers once in a while. This hits the spot!

  5. “Smoky clouds of dewy doom” is killer. But you can go in again; I’ll sit this one out, thanks. ;)

  6. Linda Baie says:

    One of the classes at school does a haunted classroom every year, & everyone gets to come down to experience it. They will love this poem, will be finishing next week, so I’ll pass it on!

  7. Tricia says:

    Charles,
    I love this and think the ending is sublime!
    Thanks for sharing.
    Tricia

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