Children as poets and poet as Moderator

[Welles]

A Wilderness of Thought
Childhood and the poetic imagination
BY Richard Lewis

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/ ... ticle/7587

I wanted to post this article because the children's poetry that Richard includes is just beautiful.

I'm also using this post to congratulate and thank our resident poet, overmind, for taking on the task of Moderator.


Welles

[overmind]

I wrote this really good poem in sixth grade, but I doubt I could ever find it. It was about a specific rocky beach, and the only reason I wrote it was because it was for school. I didn't like reading and writing when I was young.

[Sandy]

Arthur, it is hard to imagine you ever not reading or writing. I hope you can find this long ago poem. I would love to hear it.

After reading this article Welles posted... (Thanks Welles I too enjoyed the children's poems.) I couldn't help but close my eyes and drift back... trying to recall long ago memories of being a child...the way I interpreted and felt my way through the natural world. The wind used to carry me away to far off inner places back then. Do you all remember a poem, I believe it was called, "The Attic Of The Wind." How I loved that as a child.

I am so pleased you noticed Arthur's new job here on the board. He has already been a great help to us!

Sandy

[happyrain]

i had time to sit and read the entire article today and thought it was wonderfully pieced together
reading the poetry brought tears to my eyes
i found it intruiging how the aurthor talks about two kinds of vision- outward sight and inner eyes.
the link between nature, imagination and reality.
the euphoric feeling of connectedness we're sometimes graced by.
the science of the mind in comparison to nature and the uniqueness of ones imagination as it translates life experience into poetry itself

[Petra Wilson]

Thanks for the link Welles. I find this subject interesting as so many kids today are mostly playing
on their iphones and exboxes etc.
I used to write poems and short stories for fun. I had little or no encouragement to continue
etc at first. It was my way of coping with my dad's death and my mother's frequent disappearing
acts. Then I left and my sister found them and read and shared them with her friends.
I was surprised when she wrote to ask me to finish one of the stories I had been writing as her
friend's and her friend's mothers wanted to know what happened next,

Love, Pet xx