With special thanks to Dr. Kim Johnson who hosted Ethical ELA’s Open Write last week with the invitation to compose “Your Life’s Table of Contents” poems. There is no formula, just lots of freedom; Kim said: “I started thinking about how I might write a table of contents organizing the poems I have written over these past few years, in verse…Imagine you are creating a collection of your own work, and try your hand at an organizing poem to be a table of contents or any other feature of a book.“
My poem is based on a timeline of my writing history, starting at age 6.
My Life’s Writing Anthology
Bible story plagiarized
in blocky big letters
on lined newsprint paper
All About Me
carefully rendered detail
teacher-praised
Myth of Shoeani
on the origin
of shoes
Dr. Heartbeat, Dr. Heartbeat
a play composed
around four words
heart
lion
clock
—I forget the fourth
The Poetry Years
of rainbows
friendships
love
loss
even a baby dragon
rhythms of my soul
attempting to understand
itself
A short story
a mystery
a secret
a little girl
kept safe
All-nighter
research paper
on the function of
King Claudius
in Hamlet
—still tied two of my best friends
for the highest marks in class
Oral tradition
of grandparents
put to paper
for the first time
Novel ideas
captured in notebooks
beginning to live
even if
they haven’t breathed
in a while
Critical research
on children’s fantasy lit
taking the last of my strength
and the humanities prize
Short stories
hammered out
within word counts
for competitions
Mentor texts
for students
and teachers
learning how to write
and to love
memoir
essay
story
fantasy
poetry
The blog:
the archive
the scrapbook
of my writing life
my love letter
to words
and the world
*******
The annual Slice of Life Story Challenge with Two Writing Teachers is underway, meaning that I am posting every day in the month of March. This marks my fifth consecutive year and I’m experimenting with an abecedarian approach: On Day 23, I am writing around a word beginning with letter w. How could it NOT be “writing”?
lit bits and pieces 
What a wonderful endeavor, Fran. I found this type of poem interesting and no doubt that you dug deep into your life story to compose this cycle of events that shared your love of writing throughout the years. As always, your life unfolds in a literary way through your writing.
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Many thanks, Carol; in short: I’ve loved writing all my life! Always so grateful for your words.
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I love this thinking about the history of our writing. Am so happy to see it move around our community in different forms. But your form, your form is breathtaking like so much of your writing, a joy to read and reread.
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You work a magical spell with words, Fran! I still hang on the idea of the plagiarized Bible and what an interesting idea that is – your writing is rich with imagery and unfolds with layers of new delight at each turn to reveal the delight of who you are! I’m so inspired by your work!
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You replied to me and not Fran. Though I agree.
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-I got it! Many thanks, Kim, for your words and for the inspiration YOU are. Always-
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Sue – thank you so much for these words. Some time ago I’d made a timeline of these highlights of my writing history, moments that stand out in memory as forming who I am as a writer. When Kim’s prompt came…I felt the timeline shifting into verse.
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I enjoyed reading about your writing life. It is indeed your “love letter
to words and the world“. Thanks for sharing.
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You are so gracious and I so appreciate YOUR words!
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In library school, we had to write a summary of our reading lives. That was easy for me; I’d have to really dig deep to do the same for writing. I can see these stanzas displayed at the beginning of each chapter of your writing memoir, a lovely introduction to the prose. I can almost picture it printed and bound!
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Such a fun idea, Chris… chapter titles for a memoir…!
FYI – I’ll be catching up with my commenting on other blogs this pm; I usually try to do so late in the evening or early morning when I can think; our wifi has been worse than usual since yesterday. Just sayin’ – I will be making my rounds soon!!
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This structure is just perfect – and the timeline just adds so much as a visual. It must have been a joy to draft. I love the last stanza.
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It was fun; mostly I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Thanks so much, Clare.
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I loved reading this poem about your writing life and the timeline. All that energy! Your powerful close – “…my love letter to words and the world” – powerful and effective. A treasure and a celebration of your process, your triumphs, your passion, your love of writing.
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I so appreciate your words, Lynne – thank you!
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Of course w is for writing and I love the details of your earliest moments right up to the present time. I have no memories of most of what I wrote, so I am amazed at what you have recalled and all the different shades of meaning and thoughts they bring back to you. ‘My love letter to words and the world’, what a perfect line to end on!
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Mostly these are highlights that stand out, as special moments or things with much meaning attached. When I started the blog I hoped it would uplift others; there’s too much out there that doesn’t. I so appreciate your thoughts!
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I have a number of poems that I wrote years ago after the Great Divorce. At least once a week I vacillate between Putting them in my blogs and Placing them back in the drawer to sleep a while longer…
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Fascinating use of capitals on your verbs here – bookends of your backstory. So very intriguing…
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I enjoyed reading your reflective poem. My favorite is the stanza is “the poetry years” — the baby dragon (I want to know more) and “rhythms of my soul attempting to understand itself.” I think that line pinpoints our writing lives. Don’t you?
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Ah, my Poetry Years … I am experiencing a renaissance now, but they began in middle school. All that new-teen angst, to be sure. I know I certainly write even now to know the inner workings of my soul better – yes. The Baby Dragon is just a fun little rhyme I penned long ago, for no reason at all, just because. Here it is, for when you are up for a bit of whimsy: https://litbitsandpieces.com/2020/03/10/the-baby-dragon/
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Every stanza contains the promise of learning the backstory of your writing life. I am a little sad that I was not nurtured as a writer in my younger days. I spent all my time reading, reading, reading.
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Oh, Elsie. I adore reading and did so voraciously as a child, but writing…I did have teachers strategically placed in my life to make all the difference. Donald Graves said in Children Want to Write that in school, a much higher premium is placed on receiving messages instead of the ability to send them, and that personal messages in writing are not valued as much as the accurate repetition of the ideas in others’ writing (i.e, authors etc.) There’s so much truth in his words and fifty years after his pioneering of writing workshop… has this changed on a broad scale?? I’ve seen regressions – writing workshop, authentic writing from the hearts of kids, abandoned in favor of programs where they all write to the same prompt… I will stop here or it’s another whole slice. Just know you have touched my heart in a very tender place.
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I love this writing life as poem as table of contents. I especially like how you move from timeline to poem because I recently had my students create a timeline as part of a morning prompt & now I’m thinking that maybe they can revisit this & re-create it in a new form. I think my favorite stanza is “A short story/ a mystery/ a secret/ a little girl/ kept safe” because it is more or less what you describe in and of itself – a short mystery!
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Would be fun to see what the kids create with timelines in a different form – it’s astonishing, what they can come up with. That short story – I wrote it in for an English assignment; it took on a life of its own and was the first time I ever wrestled with what’s basically a plot hole. It was about a woman with a little girl named Serenity – they’d started a new life in a new town, and I had to figure out why so that it would make sense and still surprise readers. I entitled it “The Secret.” I have NO idea now what the original assignment was, but the teacher had me read it aloud to my classmates, who applauded — so it has a special place in my heart and on my timeline! So glad the lines pulled at you – thank you, Amanda.
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Wow. This. Is. Stunning! I also love how you used a timeline to generate ideas for this poem. It’s so interesting to think about the history of writing…
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I love the idea of a writer’s timeline detailing your experiences as you grew. Your blog as the “love letter to words and the world?” Wow. I don’t think I could have put it much better. I need to remember those words the next time I have some doubt as to why I’m putting my writing out there anyway, or doubting what I’m trying to accomplish. Love letter to words and the world? That says everything right there. I’m also intrigued by the short story/mystery stanza. It’s tucked right there in the middle of it all – but there’s so much there left unsaid…
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It was a fun exercise in remembering meaningful writing through the years…writing is such a joy to me. As I know it is to you, kindred-writer-spirit friend. Yeah that little mystery was a school assignment gone mad; it took on a life of its own and I was so proud of it (a mom moving to a new place to shield her young daughter. That was the initial image I had in my mind; I then had to figure out WHY. It worked me!).
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I’ve had stories like that, that worked me over. I’ve completed some of them, and some are still stubborn seeds stuck in the ground…
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