My first poem!
I was in class 3rd or 4th. My memory blurs. But nevertheless, I remember that period in my class with a peculiar clarity. It was an SUPW (arts/craft) period. But the regular teacher was absent. Instead there was another teacher to fill her absence. The class went happily berserk having a new teacher, but the teacher had her plans to keep us engaged. She asked us all to write a poem mentioning that the best one will feature in the upcoming issue of school magazine. The topic was "Rose", which after so many years now I find ridiculously insane. But then, I was up to the task to impress the teacher and to outdo the rest. For writing a poem was not as limiting as solving a maths sum. It did not test talent. So I had my chances. All I knew about poems then was that, it had to be rhyming. I juggled with my limited repertoire of words in my brain and played mix and match. I struggled. I wrote. Erased and rewrote. But I wasn't happy. Time was running out. I craned my neck, stole a few furtive glances at what other's were writing but of no avail. I took a silent resolve and within few more minutes, I completed.
I read and reread the poem. My face glowed each time I read. My heart thumped with the thought that I wrote a poem. It was my poem. My creation. I was tempted to show it to the guy beside me. But I pulled back. The privilege to read this rare piece of manuscript first had to be the teacher. She would acknowledge its real value. I gingerly walked to her, apprehensive yet confident that she would be impressed. All the words were rhyming and ringing like chiming bells. She saw me approaching and asked, "Finished?". I nodded. I placed the copy in front of her, my heart still pounding.
This is what she read:
Beautiful, lovely Rose!
Life is not a bed of rose *
neither it is a bed of sorrows!
Rose! Rose! Rose!
Beautiful lovely rose!
* The asterisk has a particular relevance.
To be contd.....
