Image by found_drama via FlickrHave you signed up for the Deja Vu Blogfest brought to you by D.L. Hammons? It's a fun way to dig back through the blog archives to present one of those early posts that may have been missed or a post that is special in your eyes that you want to highlight. Do you have an oldie but goody that you'd like to share with the rest of us? Friday is the day to do it. Start digging for buried blog treasure now and sign up on D.L.'s page.
I think it's kind of fun and enlightening to look through ones old writing samples to see where you were then and how far you've come since. A while back Deniz Bevan at The Girdle of Melian brought up the subject of reading old writing and sharing it on ones blog. Since we're were on the topic of Deja Vu and last week I talked about and shared an example of some of my old writing, I thought in this post I might share a bit of a flashback from the 1970s.
The following poem was from an assignment in a Writing of Poetry class that I took at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I don't recall the exact date, but this probably comes from about 1973. This particular assignment was to write a poem in sonnet form. From my dreamy-minded love-longing self of college days, here is my sonnet.
Image by MagdaMontemor via FlickrSonnet
She is the question without an answer.
Though I try to comprehend her meaning,
I fail, losing my view of that gleaming
Vision I beheld. Then, like a dancer,
She pirouettes from sight, my last glance her
Hands acknowledge . I linger in dreaming,
Probing her significance, then seeming
To gather the impression that man's her
Basic prey. Laughing, she throws her head back,
Swoops down with painted claws, tears out my heart.
I, stumbling at her feet, weak from the attack--
I look up. What love might she impart?
Deeply I search for meaning in her face,
But comprehension my mind has erased.
Do you save your old writing? What have you seen when you reread writing from younger days?
