My love for poetry started when I was around 7 or 8. I don't really remember what sparked it, but I do remember that one day I sat down determined to write what I thought was a poem. The whole thing ended up being just a page filled with a bunch of random facts. Things like 'the rainbow has seven colours, the sky is blue', and so on and so forth for a whole page. I don't know where I got this idea, but I really thought that poems were supposed to be lists of all the facts that one could recollect.
I showed it to my awesome mom, who commended my efforts and then tried to gently explain to me what a poem actually was. I'm pretty sure she even looked some up and showed me so that I would get the idea. And eventually, I did. I started writing poems mostly about nature. Once again, for some reason, 7/8 year old me believed that poems exclusively had to be about nature. Maybe that's because some of the earliest poems I was exposed to in primary school were about nature (e.g. Daffodils by William Wordsworth).
In any case, I started writing lots of poetry just for the fun of it. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but around the 5th grade, one of my teachers, Ms Hema, saw a poem I'd written. I think it was for some sort of class assignment, but I don't really recall. When parent-teacher meetings came about, she told my parents that she thought I had a flair for writing, and told me that I should submit a collection of some of my poems to be displayed at our primary school library. Now, to say I was excited would be the understatement of the century. Even though it wasn't like this was being actually published, it still felt like I was getting a little time to shine. For all you nerds out there, you know we don't get a lot of those moments so this felt like a Pulitzer Prize.
This really became a family operation. I would write the poems in my little notebook, and my super supportive parents helped me to type it up, edit the document and choose accompanying pictures from Google. I remember I insisted on the odd palm-tree border being present on every single page. I think I had just discovered that Microsoft Word has those gimmicky graphic borders and just wanted to use it. I also insisted on the weird handwriting font, which now seems like a silly choice since it's not the easiest to read. But, I'm sure that at the time I thought it was a boldly artsy choice.
Once we had completed the document, we put it on a USB and drove to the nearest printers shop. We had it printed and placed into a ring binder with plastic sheets. I named this collection of poetry 'Poems of the Heart'. It was all ready to go. I remember proudly handing it to Ms Hema. She made sure we 'launched' the book officially on stage during one of our daily morning school assemblies. I felt like I was a real published author at the launch of my first-ever book. It was a thrill I'll never forget.
When I look back at those poems, I have to admit I cringe just a little. My idea of poetry and my style of writing was just so incredibly different back then to what it is now. But I suppose that's all just a part of the process. In retrospect, I'm really thankful to have a record of what my writer's voice sounded like back then. It's also interesting for me in my twenties now to see what was going on in my mind when I was that age.
Below in the slider you can flip through Poems of the Heart, with the original formatting and all! I thought I'd put this up and share this with the world. It's interesting, because now in my twenties I find myself awfully shy to show my poetry or writing to people. But I didn't have any of those inhibitions when I was 10. All I wanted was for people to read my creations at that age. So I thought I'd honour the wishes of my 10-year-old-self and post this here for the world to see! Do let me know what you think in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to get notified when I post.
© 2021 Shreya Alagramam
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