Poetry: The Early Years

My friends, everyone must start somewhere.  And thus it was with my humble self.  I did not spring full grown from my father’s head.  Little Betsy took her tottering steps towards a writing future just as every other writer does.

In proof of this fact, I offer up the following limerick, which was published in my fifth grade newsletter to great fanfare.  If I remember correctly, which is kind of chancy at this point in my life, I was the absolute Queen of the Limerick in fifth grade. This one’s the best, though. Well, okay, it might not be the best, but it’s the only one I remember. And I thought I’d share it with all of you.

huh-hmmmmm

Untitled
by
Betsy Horvath in Fifth Grade

 

Whenever I go far from home
I send not myself, but a clone.
The other five me’s
Sit in the trees,
Have fun and are never alone.

 

Honestly, I’m not quite sure where the whole “sit in the trees” thing came from. I did have a favorite tree back then, a tree that was honored in my multi-stanza epic poem “My Tree and Me” (My tree and me / are as happy as can be).  It also might have come from “The Sound of Music”. The scene where all of the kids were hanging out of trees wearing outfits made from old draperies did make quite an impression.

When I quote this poem as an adult, I tend to change the line to “the other five me’s / will do as we please”, but I wanted to give you the original unaltered version.

Fifth grade was a year of significant growth in my art, and then in sixth grade my opus maximus “Herman the Unhappy Loaf of Bread” was published. Someday Herman may find his way here too.

And now I think I shall go out and sit in a tree for a while.

Thank you for your time.

Comments

  1. We absolutely want Herman! Herman! Herman! Herman!

    You’re lucky. If you get writer’s block, you have four other Me’s to pick up the slack. 🙂

    • Betsy Horvath says

      Herman shall ride again! He’s going to show up on another day when I can’t think of anything to post. Perhaps today.

      And I’m STILL waiting to read your work about the Watermelon (I believe).

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