In this delightfully scary article, Teri takes us on a tour of her favorite poets' haunts including graveyards, mausoleums, and dark and stormy nights! Read on for seasonal fright!

Want to See Something Really Scary?

by Terri Leigh Relf

Imagine John Lithgow writing a series of poems about his multiple character roles in Twilight Zone , The Movie . If that doesn't scare you, then dust off your old copy of The Norton Anthology of English Literature . Begin with William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," then read excerpts from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound." Follow this with one of my personal favorites, Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover." If it's dark outside, and you're feeling a wee bit frightened, I suggest you take the flashlight under the bed to read another one of my personal favorites, Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market."

Now it's time to get a good night's sleep. In the morning, pull out that less dusty collection by American poet, Edgar Allan Poe. I suggest reading him by daylight, preferably with someone else in the house to protect you, unless, of course, you're very, very brave. Better yet, have someone else sitting close by. Horror loves company. Have them read to you (the better to hear you scream...) No doubt your terror will know new heights as your heart goes thu-thump, thu-thump as if it's been removed from your body and buried beneath your bedroom floor.

Still with me?

Bring in graveyards, mausoleums, dark and stormy nights, vampires, zombies, ghouls, and ghosts. Add a bit of gore, an awful stench, the sound of something scuttling.

Doesn't faze you a bit, does it?

Then what about being buried alive or tortured? Betrayed? Something's scratching at the window. The phone is dead. The lights go out.

Admit it. You're scared! You're fascinated with this fear, too. Compelled. Are you sick and twisted? A member of a perverted group of social outcasts?

No, you're in excellent company. You're a horror poet.

But why the fascination? Is it catharsis? Are horror poets writing out their demons? Purging themselves of their shadow sides? Or are they spiritual healers, medicine people, or exorcists who reach into your body to pull out evil spirits?

Brian Knight , horror writer (check out his newly released short story collection, Dragonfly , which has been nominated for a Bram Stoker award!), had this to say about horror poets (stay tuned for an in depth interview with him in Feb. 2003) :

Horror poets have it much harder I think. Horror is one of the strongest base emotions, but we live in a world that has been desensitized to a great degree. I know - I watched my two-year-old daughter laugh her head off during the "Pea Soup" scene in The Exorcist . People just do not scare as easily as they used to. Imagine trying to make someone shiver with 20 well-chosen words. Easier said than done, my friend.

I'd like to leave you with these two poems by Knight to illustrate some of the many faces of horror.

Eater Of Children

The world is an ugly, ravenous monster,
It gobbles up our little children,
And shits out adults.
Our own flesh and blood,
Raised to feed the beast.

I look at him with a forced smile,
"My boy, you are growing up so fast."
But what I think is,
"Stand tall my son - put on a brave face and get in line.
It's your turn to die."

Paranoid - 5th Floor Blues

I sit on my 5th floor balcony taking names and notes,
Faces hidden behind sunglasses and smirks, shaded by baseball caps,
Government Monkeys talking into their shoulders,
Chain-smoking another pack of cigarettes - they are watching me.

Mom is with them now - she's come by again,
While I'm sleeping, showering, shitting,
The man next door has a copy of my room key,
For a blowjob he lets her in.

She wants to find my little red book,
I wish she would leave me alone,
She steals my brandy and cigarettes,
They want to know the things I know.