This poem is like if you take Edgar Allan Poe and E E Cummings, put those two in a blender, and you get a new poem.

The reason I wrote this poem is simple: I wanted to show my love of horror and poetry by writing.

My teacher gave me freedom to write whatever I wanted, so that will come to haunt her later on in life, but here are the inspirations behind this poem.

Edgar Allan Poe really influenced me with The Raven, The Tell Tale Heart, and Annabel Lee. His style of writing was so popular that I wanted to write like him when I was in High School.

E E Cummings' style of poetry really influenced me. You see how the spaces in the stanzas are stopping at each word? That's where I got the inspiration for "The Asylum of West Virginia".

The first person dialogue was something that I always loved writing in because it just shows the character's feelings, likes, dislikes, and emotions. Where did I get influenced by? If you watched Martin Scorsese movies where the main character's talking in narration, that's where I got it from. I really love that type of storytelling because it always makes it easier for me to get inspiration for future poems or chapters in my books.

Where did I find this place: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum? Let's say I was watching a show called Ghost Stories on the Travel Channel and it showed the history of a little girl named Lily who was murdered by another patient.

Her death broke my heart because she was only 8 years old and didn't deserve to die. I thought if I could make this little girl's spirit known in this poem, it could bring not only chills down the reader's spine, but to make the reader feel emotional just by reading it.

The "Legion" part, I had to get inspiration from an old show from Animal Planet called "The Haunted" because it once showed someone's back getting scratched by a demon with the letter "L". It scared me as a kid so that was something I wanted to put in.

I will admit to this: I actually encountered a ghost in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania back in 2013 on July 2nd. I was in a ghost tour at the Jenny Wade House with my father and while we were in the basement, I saw Jenny's father in the darkest part of the basement, in a corner. He was angry to the point that I wanted to get out of there. It scared me so much that I didn't cry, but I wasn't going to stay in there long.

When I got out of there after the tour, I just wanted to get back to the trailer where my family and I were staying in. I wanted to write that type of poem by putting some of my experience with a ghost in it while trying to write a good horror fiction poem as well.

I really appreciate you taking the time to read the poem and if I do come up with another one, I'll announce it!