Like many of you I've been a "scribbler" since they handed me a pencil. As a child I loved reading Dr. Seuss out of order and play with the rhyme. And I wrote my own poems and books. I have been writing poetry since about age 7 - I won't confess to what year that was...

About age 10 my mother told a famous playwright (and published poet) at our parish church that she had a scribbler in her house. He asked me for a new poem each Sunday. He read them. He sat and talked to me about them. He encouraged me. He gave me a new way of seeing the world around me - filtered through the lens of poetry. He was in his sixties; I had just turned double-digits. He took me under his wing. He was my personal 'Tuesdays with Morrie' experience. This seems like the right place to honor him - a place where writers help other writers. I am forever grateful to William Gibson for his words and kindness.

In my teenage years, I placed the poems I liked best inside a case which used to hold my ballerina shoes. I burned the rest. Such an unwise teen thing to do - for I now wish them back. So if you are young writer, my advice is don't judge and destroy your work. As writers you have a unique opportunity to record you thoughts and feelings at this moment. In the future you can look back on yourself, see how much you've changed and how in other areas you are exactly the same.

But here are a few poems I still have, written in childhood and my teen angst years. If you like one, send a comment please, but I’m not looking for reviews because I don’t plan to change these poems. That seems revisionistic and I keep them as mementos from whence I came.