I work with kids a lot. Over the summer, I work at a camp and generally get around 300 kids that I work with pretty closely. During the school year, I work at the local middle school and elementary school doing after-school activities and helping out teachers.
Anyways, today I was doing an after-school activity at an elementary school where you have to draw a picture then write a story about it. This one little girl, though, asked me if she could write a poem instead. I said sure, and let her go on her way expecting the poem to be... well, what you would expect from a third grader.
But she finished her poem, presented it, and I was astounded. It was about a boy she really liked (I don't remember having crushes in third grade...) and the poem was incredible. It was something that I wouldn't even expect a high-school student in AP English to write. Indeed, I would've suspected that she copied it from somewhere except for the fact that I saw her write it. I still simply cannot believe the depth of feeling that was in the poem, the use of alliteration (of all things!), her metaphors, and everything else. There is no way whatsoever that I could write a poem half as good as the one she did.
Well, I'm still in shock over it. I guess you can't judge a poet by their age. I guess poets are born and the rest of us can do no more than admire them. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this little girl grew up to be her generation's Emily Dickinson.
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