I confess, we live in somewhat a muddle – too much stuff, hanging on to things for silly sentimental reasons, thinking things might come in useful one day, not wanting to waste… Oh, and being somewhat indifferent to housework! This means that things go astray – or they are put somewhere “safe” or I forget I have them, and then there’s a surprise when i find them again!
So today, while looking for a particular thing (and losing my phone in the process) I was going through a box of old papers, birthday cards, guidebooks, instruction booklets, recipes, bank statements before we had on-line banking – the things which most people would have got rid of years ago, I found a book I thought really had been lost.
It was a hard-backed exercise book, the cover was very faded, but there was a title:
POEMS
by
THE FAMOUS LOIS ELSDEN
I burst out laughing – I’d remembered the book, but completely forgotten what I’d written on the cover! inside were all (or most) of the poems I’d written between the ages of eight and sixteen. They were hilarious, and quite sweet, I guess, but I can see why I moved on from poetry to prose! The word doggerel springs to mind but of course, I was a child and I had no-one to help or guide me with lyrical writing. Some of the later ones, the teenage years were predictably pretentious, and yes, embarrassing – and obviously, none are going to be shared here!
Lois Elsden 