juvenilia

I'm fascinatd by Silliman's last 2 posts abt early work. to think that Rae Armantrout had a poem in Weekly Reader when she was 7!

a late bloomer   I was already 12 when I wrote this:

  Blossoms, Blossoms, oh lovely Blossoms,
  An Artist's Pure Delight;
  With Butterflies around.
  Lovely at night;
  In the Pale Moonlight,
  The Bee's gone away;
  A perfect setting,
  On a perfect day.

was this my first poem? I don't know. but it is the earliest to survive. was it the poem that I carvd into the branch of a willow tree in the front yard? I don't know that either.

if someone were to ask me my earliest influence I'd not hesitate in naming Ferlinghetti. but this "poem" suggests that Emily Dickinson came earlier. I have terribly few poems from the apprentice period (1955-60). I startd publishing poems in 1962.

is all the early work bad? it's easy for a quick yes. but as a survivor who's still at it I must say that even some of the worst of those are instructional to me. I see the me I was -- both person & writer. I detect the changes   progress made   but also I retain some awe that I was creating with words before becoming a teenager.