"The Unquiet Grave" (A Poem)

A popular ballad sung on the streets of London during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, “The Unquiet Grave” is a dramatic dialogue between the narrator and the spirit of their deceased paramour. Although several centuries of communal authorship have produced over forty versions of the song, they all possess the same basic story and message.[1] Visiting their beloved’s grave every day for a year, the narrator is eventually confronted by a restless spirit who demands they live their life rather than spend their remaining days on earth perpetually mourning. It is a theme common in many works, from Ecclesiastes to Christina Rossetti’s “Remember.”

“The wind doth blow today, my love,

And a few small drops of rain;
I never had but one true-love,
In cold grave she was lain.

“I’ll do as much for my true-love
As any young man may;
I’ll sit and mourn all at her grave
For a twelvemonth and a day.”

The twelvemonth and a day being up,
The dead began to speak:
“Oh who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?”

“‘Tis I, my love, sits on your grave,
And will not let you sleep;
For I crave one kiss of your clay-cold lips,
And that is all I seek.”

“You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
But my breath smells earthy strong;
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
Your time will not be long.

“‘Tis down in yonder garden green,
Love, where we used to walk,
The finest flower that e’er was seen
Is withered to a stalk.

“The stalk is withered dry, my love,
So will our hearts decay;
So make yourself content, my love,
Till God calls you away.”[2]

Works Referenced

Koch, Kenneth. Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry. New York: Scribner, 1998.

“The Unquiet Grave.” The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Ed. Francis James Child. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1885. 236.
____________________
[1] Koch, 161.
[2] “The Unquiet Grave,” 236.

Funeral Bouquet

$25 - $30 (based on 2025 prices)
Makes one bouquet 

Taking what I learned by creating the cemetery wreath, I decided to create two props with dead flowers to incorporate into the haunt. This first one, which is featured here, is a simple bouquet that I placed atop a coffin. The second is an urn which was nestled among the tombstones. Although I used this prop to add ambiance to the display, it can easily be incorporated into a costume as an accessory for a scare-actor.

• Twenty-four artificial flowers (six camellias, six lilacs, six peonies, and six roses)
• One pan large enough to soak all of the flowers
• At least one tablespoon of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One baking sheet large enough to accommodate all of the flowers
• One standard lighter
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat black*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• One 7” x 3” foam cone
• One 3” x 3” foam disk
• One 33 oz. bag of Spanish moss
• Four feet of steel wire
• One 18” x 21” piece of gray fabric
• One foot of two-inch-wide plaid ribbon
• One decorative brooch and stick pin

1. Remove the flowers from their stems and arrange them pedicel up in a metal container. To make the staining process easier, try to use a vessel large enough to accommodate all of the flowers at once; otherwise, you can repeat steps one and two in small batches.

2. Sprinkle the coffee grounds into the pan and add boiling water, allowing the flowers to soak in the liquid. How dark you stain the flowers will depend on your desired state of decomposition. For a light brown, only use one or two tablespoons of coffee and let the flowers soak for less than a day. For a dark brown, increase the coffee to three or four tablespoons and let the flowers steep in the liquid for several days.

3. Once the flowers have absorbed the coffee, move them to a baking sheet to dry. To expedite this process, set the flowers outside in the sun; however, do not bake them in the oven like those made for the cemetery wreath because it will melt their plastic ends and make it difficult to connect them to the stems.

4. Use a lighter to burn the edges of the flowers. I found that a Butane gas lighter, because of its length, makes the process easier and safer. Likewise, perform this step in a well-ventilated area and near either a sink or pan of water.

5. Use brown paint to darken the pistil and sepal of each flower to make them look withered. For additional rot, you can add slight touches of black around the edges and along the section which connects to the stems.

6. Spread the stems outward to separate the leaves. This will make it easier to paint them. Then, on a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, dust the stems and leaves with lights coats of brown and black paint. For the best results, hold the can over twelve inches away from the stems and leaves and make quick flicking motions. Once they are dry, turn them over and repeat the process on the other side.

7. For further distress, use a lighter to wilt the leaves and burn their edges. As with step four, perform this process in a well-ventilated area and near water.

8. Form the base for the bouquet by gluing the foam cone to the foam disk, creating a ten-inch structure. Depending on how you plan to use the prop, you may want to increase or decrease this size. If you plan for a scare-actor to hold it, you may want something larger to give them better grip.

9. Reattach the flowers to their stems. For visual interest, try not to cluster the same blooms together. Rather, divide them up so that multiple types of flowers are on the same stem. Once you have arranged the flowers to your liking, insert the ends of the stems into the foam structure.

10. Coat the top of the foam cone with a layer of glue and press the moss into it, allowing it to dry. For added detail, you can also glue worms or other insects to the foliage.

11. Cut the four-foot section of steel wire in half and wrap the strands around each other to form one sturdy two-foot section. This will be used to give the edge of the bouquet’s wrapping a bendable structure.

12. Cut a piece of fabric large enough to wrap around the foam cone (mine was 18” x 21”). Following this, glue the wire four inches from the edge. Then, fold the four-inch flap over the wire and glue it down. This will become the upper edge of the bouquet’s wrapper.

13. Starting on one side of the cone, wrap the cloth around the structure, gluing down portions as you go. You want the upper edge to rest just below the flowers and the bottom edge to hang about an inch below the tip of the cone. Likewise, you want a V-shaped opening near what will be the front of the prop.

14. Cut a length of ribbon long enough to wrap around the middle of the cone and glue it in place. You can always position it higher or lower on the prop based on its intended use. If a scare-actor will hold it, you may want to position the band closer to the top to prevent it from catching on their gloves or other parts of their costume.

15. Toward the front of the prop, accent the ribbon with the brooch and stick pin. What accessories you decide to use are dependent on your chosen aesthetic. You can incorporate a larger embellishment like an ornate medallion or simply leave the ribbon unadorned.

16. Depending on your theme, you can add additional touches, like insects crawling out of the rotting buds or splatters of blood.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

The Rise of Cremation: A Mini-Essay

     Toward the end of the nineteenth century, rising funeral costs were making even the most basic burials unobtainable to the growing lower class, with a simple cemetery internment by an undertaker costing between $80 and $100 in 1883.[1] To rectify the issue, communities throughout the United States relied on a variety of solutions. In New York City, a seventy-nine-acre island was transformed into the location for the city’s pauper graves. Divided into sections, the island contained numerous trenches measuring forty-five feet long by fifteen feet wide by seven feet deep, where three wooden coffins were stacked on top of each other. In 1891, Helen Gardener, the editor of the periodical The Arena, visited the island and was shocked by its conditions: the pine boxes containing bodies were poorly crafted, causing portions of the dead to protrude, and the stench of death lingered throughout the island, made worse by the fact that the trenches were kept open to add additional coffins. By the time of her visit, the island contained over 70,000 corpses and was receiving fifty new bodies daily.[2] In other parts of the nation, companies began offering burial insurance to the working class as a means to reduce the financial burden of death. By the start of 1909, there were seventeen insurance firms in the United States with twenty million active policy holders.[3] Yet, even with insurance assistance, prices were still high as a cheap wooden coffin in 1912 cost $65, embalming fees averaged $15, transportation of the corpse to the grave site amounted to roughly $210, and interment was priced at $30.[4] Due to this factor, organizations began promoting cremation as a cheaper alternative to burial. In the 1870s, figures like Reverend Quincy Dowd pushed for the use of cremation to not only alleviate the economic weight of burial on the lower class but also address the growing public-health concerns over the unsavory conditions of cemeteries.[5] The efforts of Dowd and his peers worked, with cremation slowly rising in popularity while still maintaining its relatively low cast of $25.[6]

 

Works Referenced

Allmendinger, Susan, and David Allmendinger, ed. The American People in the Industrial City. New Haven, CT: Pendulum Press, 1973.

Dowd, Quincy. “Burial Costs among the Poor.” Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, Cleveland, 1912. Fort Wayne, IN: Fort Wayne Printing Company, 1912. 121-125.

Dowd, Quincy. Funeral Management and Costs: A World Survey of Burial and Cremation. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1921.

Frankel, Lee. “Industrial Insurance.” Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, Buffalo, 1909. Fort Wayne, IN: Fort Wayne Printing Company, 1909. 369-383.

Gardener, Helen. “Thrown in with the City’s Dead.” The Arena 3 (1891): 61-62, 68.

Report on the Committee of the Senate upon the Relations between Labor and Capital, and Testimony Taken by the Committee. Vol. 3. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1885. 
____________________ 
[1] Report on the Committee of the Senate, 500. 
[2] Gardener, 61-62. 
[3] Frankel, 369. 
[4] Dowd “Burial Costs,” 121-122. 
[5] Allmendinger and Allmendinger, 207. 
[6] Dowd Funeral Management, 150. 

Magician Hat

$20 - $30 (based on 2025 prices)

Makes one hat

Back in 2018, the costume I made for the German American Club’s Fasching celebration won first place. So, for their 2026 event, I made plans to create another costume which would put me in the running for the same prize. This hat was part of the design and meant to tie together the soothsayer theme by subtly incorporating the Magician tarot card. Although my version had a specific theme, you can always alter the accessories to accommodate your aesthetic, such as a series of red roses and horns for a demon motif.

• One eight-inch top hat
• One yard of one-inch-wide red ribbon
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• An assortment of artificial flowers in various colors and sizes
• An assortment of artificial leaves in varying hues and dimensions
• One sheet of white copy paper with the Magician tarot card printed on it
• One sheet of cream-colored cardstock
• One peacock feather
• One silver safety pin
• Three decorative stick pins

1. Measure the circumference of the hat’s crown to determine the length of the band. Then, cut the ribbon to that length and use it to make a band around the hat. Although I chose a red ribbon for contrast, you can pick whichever hue matches your color scheme.

2. Decorate one side of the hat with the artificial flowers, clustering the larger blooms along the brim and swirling the smaller flowers upward across the crown toward the top. Following this, give the arrangement more depth by filling the gaps with the leaves. For visual interest, try to refrain from clustering flowers and leaves with the same hues and shapes together.

3. Cut out the Magician card and create a backing for it with the cardstock, leaving a quarter-inch border around all four sides. How large you make the entire card is up to your chosen aesthetic. I made mine 3.25” x 5.5” so that it was highly visible from afar; however, you can go smaller for a subtler look.

4. Using colored pencils, color the card to correspond with the theme of your hat. For the time-pressed haunter, you can use a colored print and bypass this step or leave the card uncolored to contrast with the vibrant hues of the flowers.

5. Decorate the other side of the hat with the tarot card, a peacock feather, and the remaining flowers and leaves. I positioned everything in the center of the space to create a sense of balance, but you can position the items closer to the front of the hat to make them more prominent.

6. Accent the hat with the stick pins, nestling them among the flowers, and use a safety pin to make the card look tacked to the hat. These types of details can be substituted with other objects to cater the accessory to your theme.

7. Depending on how heavy you make the hat, you may want to fashion a chin strap out of the remaining ribbon to help it stay in place, particularly if you plan to wear it in windy conditions or plan to be highly active with it on.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

"The Sound of Metal" (A Poem)

 

In August of 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk sank in the Barents Sea while conducting a naval exercise. The Russian Navy launched a four-day rescue operation to save the sailors; however, their efforts were a failure, with many arguing officials botched the rescue.[1] This poem by Gary “Mex” Glazner offers an American’s perspective on the tragedy, detailing the slow deaths of the 118 individuals trapped inside the submarine’s hull.

 
For the Sailors of the submarine Kursk
(symbols are to be performed as Morse code)

 
. . . - . . .
. . . - . . .

 
. . . - . . .
. . . - . . .

 
The sound of metal ringing in the sea.
A map to speak of possibility.

 
Concentric tones of need.
A rhythm charged with want.

 
Where does it come from?

 
A steel pulse calling
rising to the surface
clinging to any ear.

 
Reaching up an atlas of why.
What language is this?

 
How to explain the density of air?
 

This is the speech of ocean.
This is the breath you are not taking.
 

Calling out-free us. Calling out-find us.
We are not hidden.
We are simple sailors,
Won’t you gossip about survival?
 

He has always loved swimming in the river
and it was impossible to pull him out of there.
 

We know that they are still alive,
because they knock on the walls.
 

Carbon Dioxide hatches every dream exhaled.
 

The absolute truth of lungs.
The fierce work of depth-charge.
 

Claustrophobic frontier.
This foul moment of union.
 

We are listening.
They are banging an alarm of devotion.
 

They tell us who to wait for.
A multitude of pounding.
The drum composed of life.
An instrument of clarity.
 

Singing of consummation.
A bell clinging to the shape of its chime.
Sound quick as water.
Tone thicker than time.
A tapping faint as forget.
Buoyant into the fracture.
Floating up like prayers.
 

. . . - . . .
. . . - . . .
 

. . . - . . .
. . . - . . .[2]
 

Works Referenced

 

Glazner, Gary “Mex.” “The Sound of Metal.” The Complete Idiots Guide to Writing Poetry. Ed. Mikki Moustaki. New York: Alpha Books, 2001. 237-239.

 
Moore, Robert. A Time To Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy. New York: The Three Rivers Press, 2002.
____________________
[1] Moore, 1-7.
[2] Glazner, 237-239.

Mephistopheles Mask

$30 - $40 (based on 2025 prices) 
Makes one mask

I bought several horned masks during 2024’s after-season clearance sales because I needed the horns for some projects and it was cheaper to purchase the masks than it was to buy the horns by themselves. I didn’t want to waste the masks, so I decided to create a few interesting pieces drawing inspiration from opera (see the mask inspired by Lucia di Lammermoor here). For this version, I made a mask of Mephistopheles from Doktor Faust. In the opera, the aging philosopher Doctor Faust makes a pact with the demon Mephistopheles in exchange for supernatural power and, like most cases of cosmic irony, his wish comes at a cost.

• One 7” x 5” plastic face mask
• One 12” x 28” sheet of aluminum foil
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue
• Two 8” x 11.5” sheets of brown copy paper
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in dark walnut*
• One sheet of white copy paper with devil sigli and demonic names printed on it
• At least four tablespoons of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One pan large enough to soak the copy paper
• One 4 oz. bottle of decoupage medium
• Eight inches of metal chain
• One twenty-inch chain necklace with a metal cross pendant
• One Asmodeus pendant
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*

1. Remove the horns from the mask and save them for another project. Then, trace the outline of the openings onto a sheet of cardboard, cut them out, and glue them into the space once occupied by the horns. Because I was repurposing a mask from another project, this step was necessary to give the mask a solid structure; however, you can skip this stage by purchasing a mask without any holes.

2. Tear the sheet of aluminum foil in half and use the metal to fabricate two small horns, gluing them to the cardboard. How large you decide to make them will depend on your chosen aesthetic. I kept mine to three inches to prevent them from catching on too many things while wearing the mask.

3. Make papier mache paste by mixing ½ cup of glue and ½ cup of water in a bowl. Then, tear apart the brown paper, soak it in the paste, and use the pieces to build up the horns, creating wrinkles for visual interest.  

4. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give the horns a coat of dark walnut spray paint. Don’t worry too much if the paint covers other parts of the mask because those will be covered by paper clippings.  

5. Add the coffee to twelve cups of boiling water. The longer you allow the coffee to brew, the darker the stain. Likewise, greater amounts of coffee will produce a richer stain. Since I wanted irregular spots rather than a unified discoloration, I placed the copy paper on a baking sheet, splashed coffee onto its surface, allowed the liquid to sit for a few minutes, and then moved it to a space to dry.

6. Tear apart the copy paper, isolating individual words or images, and cover the entire surface of the mask with the pieces. This process works best if you move in stages: apply a layer of decoupage medium to one section, press the paper down until it sticks, and repeat the process. If you want to add an additional level of age once the paper has dried, you can water down brown acrylic paint and brush it over the mask.  

7. Use a 7/64 bit to drill three holes an inch and a half apart on both sides of the mask and insert chains into the openings. Try not to make them too long, since they can make wearing the mask uncomfortable.

8. Hooking the ends of the necklace’s outer links to the chains toward the back of the mask, run the necklace through the chains, ensuring the metal cross remains in the center. As with step seven, you want to prevent the necklace from hanging too low because it can impair the wearer’s ability to eat or perform other tasks.

9. Pull the necklace’s cross pendant upward and glue it inverted in the center of the mask’s forehead. For a sturdier hold, consider using superglue rather than the tacky craft glue.

10. Glue the Asmodeus pendant in the center of the devil siglum on the side of the mask. As with step nine, you may want to use superglue for a stronger hold.

11. To give the mask a finished look, paint the inside black and apply at least two coats of decoupage medium to serve as a sealer and prevent the paint from rubbing off while wearing it. This is entirely optional, especially if the mask is meant only for your wear; however, if you plan to sell the mask or give it as a gift, this adds a level of professionalism.  

12. If the mask did not come with a means to fasten it to the wearer’s head, you can create ties with black or brown ribbon to match the paper covering its surface.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

School Halloween Parties: A Mini-Essay

     The Halloween party has been a staple in American classrooms for nearly a century. In the 1920s, informational texts directed toward teachers offered advice on how to make the celebration engaging for children. In 1928, for example, Dorothy Wright encouraged instructors to make the event a two-day process, with children creating decorations to adorn the classroom on October 30 and partaking in the festivities on October 31.[1] By the middle of the twentieth century, the popularity of school Halloween parties only intensified as children in the 1940s participated in cake walks and contests for the ugliest costume.[2] Toward the end of the century, school parties throughout much of the nation became more elaborate, with school-wide carnivals frequently featuring games like bobbing for apples and student-made haunted houses.[3] Although the activities and costumes changed with each decade, the benefits of the celebration have not. As Julie Bisson explains, the communal nature of Halloween allows children to foster peer bonds, practice social skills, and showcase their creativity. Likewise, its connections to festivals like the Celtic Samhain and the Mexican Dai de Los Muertos permits children to learn about different cultures.[4]

Works Referenced

Bisson, Julie. Celebrate: An Anti-Bias Guide to Enjoying Holidays in Early Childhood Programs. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press, 1997.

Helbig, Alethea, and Agnes Regan Perkins. Dictionary of American Children’s Fiction, 1990-1994: Books of Recognized Merit. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.

Walker, Nadine. “Memories of Mary Katherine (deela) Bales.” Historical Schools of Latimer County. Morrisville, NC: LuLu, 2018. 70-72.

Wright, Dorothy. “A Hallowe’en Party in the School.” Dennison’s Party Magazine 2.5 (1928): 30-31. 
____________________ 
[1] Wright, 30-31. 
[2] Walker, 71. 
[3] Helbig and Perkins, 212. 
[4] Bisson, 48-49.

2024's Haunt (Night)

2024: Haunted Cemetery (Version Three)

 

I spent 2024 expanding on the cemetery theme, building several props (including the corpse skull and skull topiary) to give the display more interest beyond the store-bought items. Presented here are images of the haunt in all its nocturnal glory (for the daytime images, click here).