Black Sabbath's Bill Ward shares spooky Halloween-themed poetry

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Turns out Black Sabbath's drummer Bill Ward is quite the poet

Bill Ward of Black Sabbath
(Image credit: Lester Cohen/Getty Images)

Founding Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has shared a collection of original poems inspired by the spooky season.

The three pieces, titled Halloween 2021, A Walk Home and Cold… And Dark, are the newest literary workings by Ward, who has taken to social media to share numerous creations inspired by topics such as the pandemic and Christmas over the last few months.

'The haunting time is days away, Children, happy, what’s all this, Am I too tired for the pranks, they’ll play,' writes Ward on Halloween 2021. 

For A Walk Home, Ward describes a meander through a mysterious, serene landscape on an autumnal misty night. He writes 'Tell me now, what is this grey / A mist before my eyes /...I look above, the moon is full / Tree branches creak with the breeze'

The final poem takes more of a ghostly turn, featuring lines written from the perspective of the undead: 'I am of the grave where it is dark and cold... I'm cold, I bring shivers / When it comes to me I deliver / I'll crawl up your back, and get in your bones, make them quiver'.

When quizzed about his spooky side, and the reality of Black Sabbath's image as occultists earlier this month, Ward told Metal Hammer: "Oh I liked the image we had, it was pretty close to the truth! There were only a couple bits of artwork I didn’t like, but my favourite cover was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – it fit me like a glove. 

"The songs I played, fitted me entirely and there was nothing false about that. I don’t believe in causing harm to other people, but what other bands do is up to them so long as it’s not hurting people. There was a time I thought The Who were extreme."

Although Ward's poetry may be less physically demanding for the 73 year old drummer, earlier this month Ward revealed that he'd much rather be feeding his creative energy into a new Black Sabbath album. 

“My biggest contention has been ‘let’s make another album’,” he stated, during an interview with Metro. “Nothing live necessarily, because I’m looking at what I can realistically do.

"The way I play the drums, it’s becoming tougher as I get older. I haven’t spoken to the guys about it, but I have talked to a couple of people in management about the possibility of making a recording.

"Which I can do safely, even with Covid around. I can lay tracks at my studio in Los Angeles. I’m very open-minded about doing something like that.”

Check out the poems below:

Liz Scarlett
Liz Scarlett
Content Editor

Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.