There is Always a Pumpkin

Posted byRebecca BuddPosted inCarl Sandburg, Halloween, PoetsTags:,

Happy Pumpkin

A carved pumpkin is the quintessential symbol of Halloween.  You may be interested in knowing – as I was when I was looking up “pumpkins” – that in Ireland and Scotland, the turnip was the vegetable of choice for carving.  With the great Irish and Scottish immigration to North America in the 19th century, the turnip was soon swapped for the larger and softer native pumpkin.  Mass production followed shortly thereafter!

There is always a pumpkin at Halloween!

Theme in Yellow

Carl Sandburg

I SPOT the hills

With yellow balls in autumn.

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins.

On the last of October

When dusk is fallen

Children join hands

And circle round me

Singing ghost songs

And love to the harvest moon;

I am a jack-o’-lantern

With terrible teeth

And the children know

I am fooling.

Published by Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

25 thoughts on “There is Always a Pumpkin”

      2. Good for you!!! You will never guess what is on my computer desk ready for the reading!!! The Silmarillion. I decided that November would be a good time to re-read J.R.R. Tolkien. I find that late fall it the perfect time to enjoy his writing. How wonderful to know that you will be reading him too! 🙂 You just made my day!

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      4. a harbinger of ill portent from Ham Gamgee:

        Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll wind up in trouble too big for you.

        Isn’t that the way of it. Sometimes we must tackle the things that seem just beyond our ken ?

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      5. Well said!!!! Which reminds me of my most favouritest quote of all:

        “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
        “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
        J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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      6. Gandalf is always the voice of duty and wisdom – when not blowing smoke rings – now I shall have to find the words he said to Denethor when he encouraged him against the despair that the West had fallen, to do his duty and defend his city.

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      10. I had the great chance to hear him interviewed on the radio, a great privilege. Some said he didn’t do romance, and his reply was something along the lines of “This is a group of men going to the destruction of the world”….

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