My Earliest Writing

Happy Poetry Friday! Today I share a poem I wrote when I was fourteen or fifteen. You'll also find a link to this week's Poetry Friday roundup at the end of this post.

Thanks to Esther, our current TeachingAuthors topic is "what we wrote when we were young." I enjoyed reading my fellow TAs posts so far and watching the book trailer Esther shared for Our Story Begins: Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids (Atheneum).

I've loved to read for as long as I can remember, but my interest in writing didn't begin until I was in sixth or seventh grade. That's when I started keeping a journal and writing poetry. Unfortunately, I saved only a few of those journal entries. In looking through them for this post, I discovered something I'd forgotten. My freshman year in high school, I did a reverse variation of Bobbi's practice of writing out her favorite books in longhand: I took my own hand-written journal entries and typed them out on my manual Smith-Corona typewriter. As I recall, I didn't have room in my schedule to take a typing class so I taught myself to type with the help of a library book, and I used my journal entries for typing practice. I suspect I didn't simply type those entries--I edited them too, and threw away the originals!

I do still have some of my handwritten poems, though, including my first published work. My seven-line poem "My Sanctuary" was included in Crystals in the Dark: An Anthology of Creative Writing from the Chicago Public Schools. I've shared the poem here before, but I've copied it again for those who may not have seen it:

                       
                                 My Sanctuary
If I could find a place far away from the world and its sounds,
Distant from the din and clatter of civilization;
Far away from pollution, politics, and people,
Away from worry, death, sorrow, and pain;
The only place that I could think of where I would be
       undisturbed, tranquil, and at peace,
                                                             is within myself.

© Carmela A Martino. All Rights Reserved.

The thrill of seeing my writing--and my name!--in print inspired me to dream of being a professional writer. While still in high school, I had a few more poems published, and even an essay in a local newspaper. My senior year, I took a creative writing class and wrote my first short story.

When I got to college, though, I decided to major in something practical, something I knew would lead to a good job: Math and Computer Science. I did take a series of literature courses for fun, but I pretty much quit writing. I didn't return to it until many years later. If you want to read about that journey, see this post.

And for more about the authors featured in Our Story Begins: Your Favorite Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids see this article in Entertainment Weekly.

When you're done, don't forget to check out this week's Poetry Friday roundup at A Journey Through the Pages.

Remember to Write with JOY!
Carmela