Anne Sexton

One modern classic is the poet Anne Sexton [1928-1974]--she wrote "Her Kind", a poem that seems to fit a Halloween, esoteric, mysterious dark history type of ethos. If you don't like Plath, Sexton is a great alternative to try. And if you do like Plath, you might like Sexton--she's a bit more contemplative, adult, 'older', and Millay-esque. Sexton also won a Pulitzer. Read more of her poetry here. And click here to listen to her read it aloud, it is very creepy, or read it below:

I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.