My first step into the world of writing

For as long as I can remember I’ve been a lover of language. The moment I learned to read I strove to improve my skills and devoured any book in sight. Whether I could understand the words made no difference to me. I simply loved to hear them roll off my tongue. I still do. Reading aloud to my kids or to myself is one of my favorite things to do. I’ll even pick up foreign language books and read them aloud, fancying I’ve got a perfect accent.

At around age eight I discovered a book of poetry in my school library. It contained various works from famous poets and I read each poem over and over, delighting in the rhyming beat. Of course, I’ve since learned that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, but a rhyming poem is where I started. I was at my babysitters house when I decided that I was going to write my first poem, right then and there. So I did that afternoon. And what else would a frivolous eight year old write about but something they truly loved? Without further ado I give you, Sweets.

Sweets
copyright Summer Owens 1989-2009

When I think of sweets I think of cake
And chocolate chip cookies that bake and bake

The sweets of every shape and kind
Some of these sweets won’t leave my mind

The sugar plums and pudding so good
I could eat all the pudding in my neighborhood

Candy Canes and gummy drops
Sweet Red Licorice and lollipops

The sweet scent of Ginger
That sometimes does bake

The taste of my moms
homemade bread and iced cake

All sweets are so nice
and so tasty to me

That when I eat a sweet
I’m completely happy

Had I ever had a sugar plum? No. Did my mom ever bake bread or gingerbread? No. Haha! But these romantical notions fit the poem and the rhyming. I can honestly say that I’m still proud of my very first poem and funny enough, my sweet tooth hasn’t change one bit.