Young Writer's Questions: When Did You Become A Poet?

Last week I had the privilege of talking to various groups of young writers as part of the Knox Network Literacy Festival. Their questions were thought provoking and most pertinent. 

I have come to appreciate, each writer’s process is unique. Revealing that process enables the writer sharing aspects of their process (as well as those with whom they share) to better understand the influences on their writing.

A young writer asked me, ‘When did you begin to be a poet?’ and while I talked about how the process of becoming a poet was something that grew across many years and a host of experiences and influences, there was perhaps one particular experience way back in my Grade 3 year that may well have been a catalyst for what has become a life source for my writing.

I recall clearly how my teacher Mr Manzie, asked the members of our class to each write a poem about Spring-time. 

My words that day caught the attention of some of my classmates, who liked the sound and shape of my poem. They suggested I share them with our teacher, which I duly did. Mr Manzie also seemed to enjoy my words and suggested I read it to the whole class. My reading received a positive reaction with smiles and claps.

The actual words of that poem have long ago disappeared into the mists of time. All these years later, I hold no recollection of the words I employed in making that poem. However, I have never forgotten the feeling that came from that experience. The responses to my words provided such a buzz. It felt so good to have my words accepted by everyone in such a positive way. Looking back, I may well have lent on the words of William Wordsworth as he wandered lonely as a cloud... 

Since that time I have been reassured by the words of Neil Gaiman who made this most pertinent observation,‘First we imitate, then we innovate.’

This experience of early writing success may

well have been the spark that set my writing life alight. Knowing I had done something well, provided an energy to persist. Such encouragement is vital in the formative stages of our respective endeavours. I have been growing into the role of poet since that day…

Because it is currently springtime in Australia, and because springtime has been on my mind this very day, here are a couple of poems to help everyone enjoy the spirit of the season as it awakens nature after the winter slumber.

Today

Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

Spring

Christina Rossetti

There is no time like Spring,

When life’s alive in everything,

Before new nestlings sing,

Before cleft swallows speed their journey back

Along the trackless track –

God guides their wing,

He spreads their table that they nothing lack, –

Before the daisy grows a common flower

Before the sun has power

To scorch the world up in his noontide hour…