The Open Write over at Ethical ELA was happening this week. I participated for a few days. On Saturday, Denise Krebs offered this writing prompt: write an ode to a childhood love. I thought about my diary from 1975 which I still have tucked away in my closet. It’s something of a miracle that I still have it because my childhood home was flooded in 1979. I’m not sure how this diary escaped.
Time was that when I looked at my diary, all I could see was the struggling teenager, flip-flopping from I like Robby to I like Bobby. I had tucked slips of paper into the diary, notes from friends and poems. Yes, poems.
Today I’m trying a different perspective of my younger self. I am thinking more kindly toward her. She was developing, in the process of becoming. No one is perfect when they are 14. Actually, I am not perfect now. We are constantly in a period of discovery about who we are, who and what we love. I think this diary may hold a precious girl, one in need of love.
“One Year Diary”
Golden pages
wrapped in a keyless lock,
you locked away all my dreams
and screams for truth and understanding.I was standing at the threshold of who I am.
You honored the me I was
with timeless sanctity.Notes and poems tucked in
like folds of a blanket, nestling
moments I wanted to keep (and forget.)Cursive swirls and exaggerated tittles,
Margaret Simon, draft
my fourteen year old soul remains
buried here.
Reflections on the Teche 