Discovery

I don't know why I love poetry so much, but I know I was young when I first discovered it.

These days, when I read a poem

I hear that warble,

lisping words from a sheet

gripped tight in proud and dirty fist.

 

In clumsy enthusiasm

the writer had sought unfamiliar words

in the dictionary,

words that rhymed just so,

ones that tasted sweet on her tongue.

 

Exuberant, the reader presented

the writer's shiny new toy, an ability

to line up letters,

to paint a platypus beneath the skin

of those who heard.

 

When I read a poem

I hear that voice

slipping words past baby teeth;

now in every poem

I hear that reader, that writer,

the child I was.

Author's Note

As always, all polite/relevant reviews are welcome - including constructive critique, grammar and spelling corrections. Finally, thank you for taking the time to read/leave a review!

Reviews

[Dylan A. Miller]

This is a wonderful poem, I had to go back and read it four times, which is rare for me. It flows beautifully. My favorite part was definitely the opener, that alone could be a fabulous poem.

[Poeticadia]

"slipping words past baby teeth;" My thoughts from this were... poetry starts with our very first words... for some of us it becomes an obsession early on... and the roots of our style are in the words we toyed with as a child. I hear the child's voice in my poems too, and sometimes wish it wasn't there... but i guess poetry can only come from everything we have ever learnt about language and words. A thought-provoking poem.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

fascinating truth you have penned here so well..........made me think....HARD