In the silence

To creep in by candle-light,
When all the world is fast asleep,
Out of the cold winds, out of the night,
Where the nettles wave and the rains weep!...
And light the candle and look round
The old familiar room;
To see the old books upon the wall
And lovingly take one down again...
And, or ever we go, we lift and kiss
Some idle thing that your hands may touch,
Some paper or book that your hands let fall...
To kiss and to cherish it, moaning our pain,
Ere we creep to the silence again.
~Alfred Noyes, "Ghosts"

In culture after culture, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits, ghosts, saints ... and gods.

STEVEN PINKER

For

Three Muses - Take Fright

&

Haunted Humpday

Poetic Postcards