I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

2 October 2014

To My Child Self

Don’t go away!
You will need you as you grow.
Hide in a cave inside
if you must;
just don’t go.

Keep on playing
with your poems.
Keep drawing too, even though
people who don’t know
tell you you can’t — just play!

Remember to look
at flowers and fairies,
remember to talk to the trees.
Keep believing in magic.
Lift up your face to the breeze.

And one day,
when you are old,
you’ll be perfectly free
to come out and play all day. 
You will still be me.



Prompted by Poets United's Midweek Motif: Writing for Children 

18 comments:

  1. Ah yes, Rosemary, I can identify with this. We do need our child self to stay or if it has not stayed to be reinvigorated at this point of life. We have more time to play now than we ever did, don't we?

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    1. And much less concern for what others might think! :)

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  2. So beautiful and perfectly said.

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  3. I LOVE this poem. ComPLETEly!!!!!!!!! I wish every child could have this told to her. Reminds me of how, once in my grandma's 80's, I looked right into her and saw the young woman she had been - still in there. A wonderful moment.

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    1. Oh yes, that sounds like a very wonderful moment.

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  4. Good poem.I think placing value on the opinions of others is possibly the greatest detriment to happiness.

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  5. So lovely Rosemary, I can identify with this completely. For my child self has never gone away, though sometimes she's had to wait to be noticed again. She's the part of me that become's lonely, then I know that I have some self-nurturing to do. Though as I get older she seems to be becoming more active in my life again, wanting me take care of myself more and express more freely. As I did when little.

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  6. love filled guidance -so innocent and true

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  7. Good reminder...I never hide or change...smiles

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  8. What a beautiful poem....what a wonderful gift to have given yourself..and us to read

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  9. Rosemary, I can relate to your poem very well. The child in me did. :)

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  10. I must share this poem with my grandchildren - so much truth. If only I had realized in my childhood that I could someday return to that place of magic and innocence. I'm on the way to Aspen, stopped for the night, reading your poems.

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