LOOKING BACK

Looking Back

-- This is one poem, from my autobiographical series of poems, that I posted here at WriteSpike. Go to my Stories section for others. They are in chronological order. --

An American Indian "observes the landmarks to his rear which makes it easy for him to return.
A white man usually fails to do this and therefore often gets lost."
Orientation: Some Reasons Why Indians Never Get Lost
~ Fred Meagher, "Straight Arrow, Injun-uity Manual" ~
published by Nabisco Shredded Wheat, 1951
I have owned this manual since I was eight years old

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
~ Soren Kierkegaard ~

It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time. You, too, are your past; often your face is your autobiography.
~ Will Durant ~

The Wind
Age 8, Town Hill School, Lakeville, Connecticut, 1953
My first poem written in third grade

When the wind whistles
through the trees
with ease
it blows about
the little leaves

Sometimes the leaves
do fall
but in autumn
most of all