Grateful
Grateful mother taught me to read before I started school sailed through Dick and Jane spelling dictation, Think and Do books square dancing, going ‘blackface’ for a Minstrel show tapping my toes to The Yellow Rose of Texas hopscotch, tag and skipping double Dutch all fun. Grateful Miss Norton read us poetry Images, words, rhythms luscious language Bliss Carmen’s Ships of Yule Wilfred Campbell’s Indian Summer . Later discovering the great writers Thanks to Miss Rattle Faulkner, Huxley, Hemingway. In university Keats and Wordsworth become kindred spirits Reading – as natural as drinking water. Parlayed it into a career Now it relaxes, stimulates, informs Grateful for literacy served me well.
