Welcome to Sunday Poetry. If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here.

Since this is a time for ghosts and goblins, I wanted to share a Halloween poem with you.  Halloween by Mac Hammond is about that age-old ritual of carving pumpkins — are you doing that this year? — but it ends with the real message of this spooky season, and it’s an inspiring one.

Remember, we read poetry together here for the pure pleasure of the experience. There are no quizzes, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share. Absolutely no dissecting allowed. Just come along for the “read.” What line, word or thought will you carry with you this week? If you’d like to tell us where the poem took you? We’ll listen.

Remember, too, there is a special giveaway in progress for those who comment on any Sunday Poetry blog before year’s end.  The prize is an autographed copy of Billy Collins’s Horoscopes for the Dead. See the details here. I’ve carried this precious autographed book from New York to Virginia, on to North Carolina, and now to Florida. It’s waiting for someone to claim it.

Will it be you?