Words from my history.

As a young woman I wrote a LOT of poetry. It seemed to be a consistent theme for me around the late 70's, early 80's. Poetry was a way to help me process how I viewed the world at that time.

It was also a way for me to "play" with words and meaning. I guess it was a kind of construct I used where expressing deep feeling was done through mysterious and melodramatic choices of unusual words juxtaposed together in rather strange verses.

Today as I look back on my old poetry, I can see my love for the "shape" of words and the rhythms they created. The meaning in some of my old poetry is somewhat clouded because of my use of unusual sounding words though. It's as if it was secondary to the structure of the poetry but not negated all the same.

Of course there are the usual suspects of youthful poetry - angry railing against death, love, and gloom; but there are also poems that are quite lovely in their innocent simplicity even now.

I particularly like this one from 1981... (I've only edited some minor grammatical glitches)

Love is what you gain
in the years that
add to life:
It is beautiful, like
a sweet spice that
adds flavour to
the meal but doesn't
overwhelm it.
In your love, the
food, that is life
will be sweet.

© M. Pitman 1981

Sure! It might be clumsy from a technical point of view but I also find it quite powerful. It continues to resonate long after it's read and the words soak into the mind like ink into chalk.

I'm trying hard not to boast about my poetry. I'm trying hard to be as analytical as possible about it. There is some really EMBARRASSING stuff I could show you too, and I may yet - just to keep me humble! ;) But... it's nice to know that I still have this part of me recorded for posterity and I can finally share them with the world.