My First Poem

Shells

Speaks like the sea and shines like stars.

Sleeps on yellow landing.

Sandcastle decorations.

Beautiful reflections.

Taken away by children

To discover striking

appearances and desires of colours.

Some are having the biggest bath

in the world along with pebbles.

The first thing I ever wrote and published was a short poem about shells. At the time I had development delays, especially with speech. Though I did enjoy writing and found that to be a great way of expressing myself. When I was unable to speak properly, I used other means of communication like the body language and stimming. Sometimes I don’t even know I am doi g it, but excessive finger twitching showed I was either excited or stressed.

The submissions were also handwritten and because of that, I think my writing was misread. The first line I wrote was speaks like the sea, but on print it ended up being speckles like the sea.

My poem about shells was written as part of a school assignment. We wrote our poem then they all got sent off to a publisher. This publisher is what many people would refer to as a vanity publisher as it was always the parents who paid for the books. As a child and with it being done within the school, it’s easy to think that it’s a special achivement. To this day, this publisher is still active.

I can’t stand vanity publishers now, and I feel duped I was reeled into publishing with one as a child. I hate them because they are willing to publish anything and deny writers royalties and overcharge for services. Stuff that kids and non-writing folks would be oblivious too.

Having said that, I think the actual poem itself is quite cute. I think it’s shown how far I have come as a writer and it still has that innocent voice that I had when I was that age. I don’t think my voice and perspectives have changed that much over the years, but I do see my writing in a different way. No matter how many times I try to change it, I can’t alter me.