It can be easy to relegate Halloween to the realm of a kitsch festival every year but to do so would be a mistake. Here in Ireland Halloween or Oíche Shamhna, was an important festival for both recognising the dead and the beginning of the darker half of the year. There was a recognition that acceptance of that darkness was important. In this week's special Halloween episode I'm going to discuss three poems from three poets, each dealing with the supernatural in their own way. Those poems are:

• Her Kind by Anne Sexton
• In The Desert by Stephen Crane
• The Witches Hex an Enemy by Jessica Traynor

Each of these works uses darkness and the macabre in the hopes of unearthing some kind of insight. Does it work? I'll let you be the judge.

*A special thank you to Jessica Traynor for allowing me to use her poem. You can find her work here: https://twitter.com/JessicaTraynor6

Show notes: https://wordsthatburn.substack.com/p/the-words-that-burn-halloween-special?sd=pf

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