It’s time for another Tell Us About! Last month, our prompt was A Day in the Life, which gave us all the chance to take a look at the ordinary, not-so-ordinary and sometimes slightly chaotic things that make up our days. This month, we’re going in a completely different direction with poetry. And I have to admit, when I saw this month’s prompt, my first thought was, “Oh dear.”
Because I’m not really a poetry person. There, I’ve said it. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate poetry. I understand that there are incredibly talented poets out there and I can absolutely appreciate beautiful writing when I see it. But I’ve always found some poetry a little bit… well… way out. You know what I mean? The sort where there are three words on a page, none of them seem to have anything to do with one another, and you’re expected to spend half an hour contemplating what the poet was trying to say. And then someone tells you that the moon represents their childhood trauma or something and I’m thinking, “Oh. Right. I was just wondering where the rest of the poem was.”
I’m much more of a rhyme, rhythm and actual words-that-make-sense kind of girl. I’ve always enjoyed a good limerick, for example. Give me something that tells a story, makes me laugh, makes me feel something or at least has a decent rhyme and I’m happy. But simply spouting a collection of words onto a page and declaring it poetry? Nah. Not really my cup of tea. Which is all rather ironic, because I have actually been published in a book of poetry. Yep. Me.
This all goes back quite a few years. I went through a phase of writing what I thought were lyrics. I had a notebook and I’d write down all these little pieces of writing, imagining them as songs. I wrote quite a lot of them, actually, and I remember quite liking some of what I’d written. Sadly, the notebook has disappeared over the years, and I had copies of my writing on my computer too. Then, when everything was wiped from my computer last year, those disappeared as well. Gutted! It’s one of those things you don’t think too much about when you have it because you assume it’ll always be there somewhere. And then suddenly it’s gone.
But before all of that happened, I showed some of my writing to my oldest friend, Emma, who is a singer and songwriter. I assumed she’d look at it as lyrics because, well, that’s what I thought they were. She didn’t. She told me it was poetry. I was probably thinking, “Oh. Apparently I’ve been writing poetry and didn’t know it.”
And now, thanks to this month’s prompt, I’ve been reminded of something else rather wonderful that happened around the same time. I was contacted by a poetry publisher about a charity collection and, on a whim, I submitted one of my pieces. I wasn’t expecting anything particularly exciting to come from it. I certainly wasn’t thinking that one day, sixteen years later, I’d be writing a blog post about it! But it was accepted. And it was published.
The Weeping Willow
The poem I submitted was called The Weeping Willow, and it was written in honour of my oldest friend, Emma. And this is where things get rather lovely because, when I went digging around for the book, I actually found my copy.
The book is called United in Inspiration – The Golden Grove Appeal Poetry Collection. It was published by Forward Press on 31 December 2010. The collection was put together to support the Golden Grove Appeal, which was raising funds for a home for servicewomen and women affected by the emotional and psychological trauma of conflict. The book itself says that 10% of its sales went towards the appeal.
And there, on page 24, is my poem. My name. In an actual poetry book. I have to admit, finding it again after all these years was a bit of a moment.
The poem itself is about my friendship with Emma and our childhood memories. It starts with the weeping willow that used to be our playground and takes us through memories of playing together, skating in the park, eating chips in the dark, moving away, keeping in touch and eventually realising that, despite all those years and all that distance, our friendship was still there.
The opening goes, “Remember the weeping willow? It used to be our playground / A place to run and hide / And watch the world go by.” And then it carries on through those memories of childhood and friendship. Looking at it now, I can completely understand why I thought of it as a lyric. It’s got repetition and rhythm and, although I didn’t know it at the time, it’s very much written to be read aloud.
It’s also quite sweet to see what mattered to me back then. There are references to writing letters, photographs, our childhood trail and the simple things we did together. It’s basically a little snapshot of a friendship from my younger years. And I suppose that’s one of the things I like about writing in general, whether it’s a novel, a blog post, lyrics or, apparently, poetry. You can capture a moment in your life without realising how valuable that little record might become years later.
And then there’s Taylor the Tiger…
But that’s not the only little bit of poetry I’ve written. Somewhere amongst my things I also found Taylor the Tiger. And I honestly have no idea what possessed me to write this. It was a ridiculously short little poem for children, and unlike practically everything else I wrote around that time, somehow this one survived.
It goes:
And I have to say, “He’d walk into every tree” still makes me smile. Poor Taylor. He was struggling with his eyesight, although, rather wonderfully, he wasn’t aware of the problem. And the solution was very straightforward: a simple pair of glasses would give him back his glare.
His glare. I’m sorry, but I absolutely love that. Forget sight. It doesn’t rhyme. Younger Suzy had a poem to write and a rhyme to finish, and glare it was.
And you know what? I think Taylor the Tiger actually sums up my feelings about poetry rather well. I like poetry when it has rhythm, rhyme, a bit of fun and a story. I like words that are doing something. I like being able to read something and understand what the writer is trying to say without needing to take a university course in literary analysis afterwards.
Maybe that’s why I always thought of my writing as lyrics rather than poetry. Lyrics can be incredibly poetic, of course, but in my mind they belonged to music. I could hear the words being sung. I wasn’t thinking about poetry at all.
So, am I a poet?
Absolutely not. Well… apparently I am. I mean, technically, I have a published poem in a book. But I still don’t think of myself as a poet. I’ve written novels. I’ve written blog posts. I’ve written lyrics that turned out to be poetry. I’ve written a children’s poem about a visually impaired tiger who apparently needed glasses to regain his ability to glare. Maybe that’s enough.
And perhaps I’m beginning to realise that poetry doesn’t necessarily have to be the mysterious, overly serious thing I’ve always imagined it to be. Maybe it’s simply another way of putting thoughts and feelings into words.
After all, The Weeping Willow wasn’t written because I wanted to be a poet. I wrote it because I wanted to capture something about a friendship that meant a lot to me. And sixteen years later, I can open a book and find those memories sitting there on page 24. That’s actually rather special, especially because I thought I’d lost nearly all of that writing forever.
So thank you, Tell Us About Poetry, for making me rummage through my things and rediscover a little piece of my younger self. And thank you to my younger self for apparently being a poet without even realising it. Although I’m still not entirely convinced that throwing three random words onto a page and calling it poetry is acceptable. I’ll stick with the rhyming stuff, thanks.
What is Tell Us About?
Tell Us About is a monthly blogging challenge where a group of bloggers from around the world respond to the same prompt. Each month, one of us chooses a word or theme, and we all interpret it in our own way. There are no real rules about how we tackle it – it could be an opinion, a personal story, memories, photographs, a poem, a short story or anything else that takes our fancy.
It’s one of the things I love about this challenge because it’s always fascinating to see how differently we can interpret exactly the same word. And if you’d like to join in, you can! Just choose the prompt, write your own post and link up with one of us.
This month’s prompt is Poetry, so I’d love to know what you think about it. Are you a poetry lover? Do you write it? Do you have a favourite poet? Or, like me, are you sitting there thinking, “Erm… I’ll have a limerick, please”?
My Tell Us About co-hosts
This month’s prompt threw Leslie for a loop. Stop by her blog for more of the scoop – Once Upon a Time, Happily Ever After Again
Sally shares some of her favourite American poets and poems – Within a World of My Own
Marsha writes about her two favourite poems. I wonder if you’ll be surprised! – Marsha in the Middle
Debbie looks back at posts from 2016 where she made poems using online magnetic tiles – it was part of a craze she went through! Who knew it would prove useful 10 years later?? – Deb’s World
Cat thinks she doesn’t have a poetic bone in her body … or does she? – Cat’s Wire
Amy – Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa
And, of course, me – Suzy Turner!
