Longfellow, Whittier, Whitman, James Whitcomb Riley and Eugene Field; Dickinson, Millay, Kilmer, e.e. Cummings and Ezra Pound. Familiar names to me just like Christy Mathewson, Dizzy Dean and Babe Ruth are to baseball fans. That’s because from the time I was a very little girl my mother would read poetry to my brother and me - sometimes during the day or after dinner, but always at bedtime.
I didn't understand then about quatrain (four lines), tercet (three lines) or couplet (two lines), nor did I know about pure rhymes, slant rhymes or internal rhymes - that would come much later. I only knew it was soothing and sweet to hear the sound of my mother’s voice as she read about The Duel between the gingham dog and calico cat., The Barefoot Boy kissed by strawberries on the hill, and Psalm of Life:
Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait
Because my mother so lovingly shared her fondness for poetry with me, I grew to have the same affection for reading poetry . I found I liked poetry as story, and fitting words together like pieces of a puzzle. One of my first attempts at writing a poem was when I was nine years old, and my fourth grade teacher, Sister Mary Wahlburg had all of her students compose a non-sense verse. Here’s mine:
If I were a fish
I wouldn’t live in a dish
But in an aquarium
I’d play spish, spash, spish
If I were a goat
I’d wear a furry coat
Nibble on green grass
and drink from a glass
I thought it was brilliant, as only a nine year old can, and made a special copy to give to my grandmother Cooney for Christmas that year. She raved about it, telling me it was a wonderful poem, and encouraged me to write more. Now , that’s a grandma’s love for sure.
In recent years my dad gave me the book, How to Write Poetry . He inscribed it, To Kathy, my favorite poet (Now, that’s a dad’s love for sure), I read in this book: Sometimes a few beautiful well-constructed lines are more powerful than any thousand page novel could possibly be. So this book challenges you to always seek the few beautiful well-constructed lines. My Love, Dad
On the inside cover dad made a few more helpful notations; Guidelines he picked from the book:
* Show joy, awe & love
* Every word in a poem plays a role in creating rhythm
*Be creative, not careless
*Where do you begin ? Begin at the beginning with a thought or a phrase
*Poetry is personal and there isn’t a right or wrong way to write a poem.
I’m a lot older than nine now, but I still write prose, poetry and essay, and because I’m no longer nine , or 39 or 59 I don’t think my writing is as brilliant as I did when I was in the fourth grade, but that doesn’t stop me. I write on !
