Life in Poetry

Welcome to a new year of the Insecure Writers'Support Group posts.
I you would like to know more about this helpful and encouraging group start here

For our first post of the year 2020, a new decade, Alex has written an inspiring post, see here

The question this month, always optional,

What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

My response to the IWSG question this month :

My first experience of creative writing was at school, in Primary. We had to emulate a poem by Walter de la Mare, The Listeners.
It inspired me to write this :

Silence in Class

The bell has rung
And everyone troops into class.
The windows clacking,
The children shouting
And talking away.

But hear the teacher say,
"Everybody be quiet".
A complete silence
Has taken over the class.

Outside we can hear the wind blowing.
The leaves are outside on the ground.
Everyone is working, quietly.
Silence, silence, silence reigns .

In the whole world, we can only hear
The walking of the teacher round and round.
Some whispers, some rustling of paper.
The wind blows in the trees.

"Silence! Silence, silence."
Suddenly, all the children burst
Out of the doors into the playground
Where they start being
Noisy, noisy, noisy.

another one I wrote, later

Antarctic Sounds

The sledges slide on the icy path.
The dogs are howling to the wind.
The ponies neigh while they stand in the cold.

The footsteps of the men can be heard
While they break the crust of the ice.
The wind blows outside the tent
While we are snug inside.

This is what it is like,
When you are
In Winter, in the Antartic;
It is cold and windy.

I have a whole notebook with poems studied and the ones I wrote, illustrated with colour pencils.

In primary school I enjoyed writing projects and articles on history and different civilisations. My sister used to write stories about her teddy and mine. They took place in Teddybearland. Li'leBear and Badibo had wonderful and terrible adventures recounted in a notebook with our illustrations. Before I could read and write, I used to contribute plot lines.
Later I started writing diaries, then short stories. Two books which first inspired me were Tom's Midnight Garden and Enig Blighton's Fairytale stories with goblins and magic treacle puddings.
Inspired by the songs I used to listen to, I would also write love poems. I was in love with David Cassidy of the Partridge Family ... who, I realised later, was a sap and not very likeable.
When a teenager, the news started to leave an impression. My poems expressed anger, injustice and sadness. I would also write essays full of my personal ideas on life, society and different kinds of people. My stories would come to me listening to music and replaying the films of my dreams.
Novels, non-fiction, National Geographic and films also influenced my writing.

That's all folks for today. What is your history with writing ?