Even verse, Mwaaaa-haaaa-haaaaaa!

This was my very first poem about Halloween:

Jack-o'-lanterns, bright and gleaming,
Like a big flashlight beaming.
And always on this spooky night,
Everyone is shaking with fright.

Do you know what night it is?
Halloween! BOO!

***
No, that wasn't the first draft of yesterday's column for Milton Patch. I wrote that poem in second grade, in Mrs. Goodbow's class at Barnard School in Greece, N.Y.

Mrs. Goodbow had a reputation as a mean teacher, but she and I got along just fine. She copied my poem in big, black lettering on a bright orange construction-paper pumpkin and displayed it in the hallway. I was so proud.

Years later, I shared my poem with a boyfriend in college. He laughed at the literary attempts of a seven-year-old. Laughed! I should have known right then that the relationship wouldn't work out. This was the same boyfriend, incidentally, who used to get angry with me for harmonizing along with songs on the radio or CD player. "Sing what's there!" he'd admonish me.

It feels pretty good, now, to write the occasional poem and get paid for it. And I never discourage my students, kids or friends from singing what isn't there.