John Lawless Poet Rhyme

I wrote a poem when I was nine

I wrote a poem when I was nine
The teacher said it wasn’t mine
She said I stole it from a book
She said I was a lying crook

I cried, I pleaded, it is mine
She said “it’s not, you’re only nine”
The other children laughed at me
I almost gave up on poetry

But no, I couldn’t, I wouldn’t quit
I’d show her she was full of it
I’d write of sun’s, and rains, and squalls
Of winters, summers, springs and falls

I’d write until the readers wept
I’d write while other writers slept
I’d write in rhyme and verses blank
And someday I’d go back and thank

That pencil stub, that yellowed page
For I now write in my old age
Of life’s forever breaking waves
Of life’s N/A’s and treasured FAVES

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Beryl Edmonds October 15, 2024 at 8:44 AM Same thing happened to me, at the age of fourteen, a teacher asked me where I got my poems from, I said they are mine, she made me write a hundred lines… Beryl

Lin Lane October 14, 2024 at 1:31 PM If only that teacher could read some of your poetry now, she'd be ashamed that she'd doubted you. When I was 13, a class assignment was to write one sentence to explain the lesson in Silas Marner. I wrote, "The root of bravery can be planted with the seed of courage." I was accused of having read or heard that somewhere. She stopped falsely accusing me after our next assignment and changed the zero she gave me on the Silas Marner book to an A.

Terry Flood October 14, 2024 at 7:09 AM I hope you ultimately convinced her, John. Glad you didn't give up... this one"s a gem... did you write it yourself ;-)