[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I was in sixth grade, Mrs. Doerkson, my teacher, submitted my work to the Regional Creative Writing Contest. They accepted me. And, I took first place in age-eleven category. It was the only thing I’d ever won, and Mrs. Doerkson was as proud as anyone on this planet. She took me out for ice cream thereafter.
Because Sean Dietrich loves ice cream.
Here is what sixth-grade-me had to say:
PRETTY GOOD SO FAR
By Sean Dietrich (Age 11)
Edited By Linda Doerkson
Life. I think I like life. It’s been pretty good so far. I don’t know what happens after we die, but I it will probably be a lot like life. And why wouldn’t it be? Life is the best thing ever made. What could be better than sunshine and trees and ice cream and grass and dogs and ice cream and oceans and girls and ice cream and poems and music?
Music. I think music is a little like life. You know what music does when you hear it? How it makes you think? When I hear it, I feel things I’ve only ever thought about.
Poems, I like them, too. But not as much as my daddy. He likes Robert Frost. He reads poetry out loud sometimes. I wish I understood poetry, but I don’t. The words are too long. Daddy says I don’t need to understand, but only to listen to the sounds of the words. He says poetry is not to be understood, but heard.
Maybe that’s what life is like, too. Maybe life is the noises of words we can’t understand. So, we just listen to the words, enjoying the way they feel in our ears. Kind of like music. Kind of like poetry.
Kind of like this.
1 comment
Harriet - October 10, 2019 12:57 am
I love this. Wonderful