January 2018
From the time I could push a crayon around on paper I "wrote" things. Poetry began to really interest me in Sixth grade. My work began to be published in county-wide, city wide anthologies of school children's work. When I was in ninth grade, I discovered free verse and Emily Dickinson among others. In the spring of 9th grade, Sister Leonora encouraged my best friend to send work to Horn Book. I convinced my friend to share the address with me and in August 1962, Horn Book published the poem below. I wrote it to celebrate my 14th birthday, January 10 of that same year. This January I will begin my 70th year--still writing about dawn, twilight, and the moon. This little poem is a glimpse into how I saw the world while in the process of leaving childhood, discovering myself, and learning self confidence.
Dawn
Up, up
From the deep mists of the night
Chasing the stars
Comes the sun.
Bright red and golden orange
Splash across the countryside.
Slowly, slowly
From the depths
Of his nocturnal hiding place
He rises--
And the darkness fades.
Up, up
From the deep mists of the night
Chasing the stars
Comes the sun.
Bright red and golden orange
Splash across the countryside.
Slowly, slowly
From the depths
Of his nocturnal hiding place
He rises--
And the darkness fades.
©2018 Joan Leotta
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