Write your memories,
write them down,
it will help you heal the years of pain
share your thoughts,
share your story,
a cathartic experience
to balance the hurt.
I have always written poetry so it was natural to write poems about my dyslexia. But sharing them is something quite different, something extremely personal and something very big. In the book, I do look at personal reflection, unhappy memories and topics that may be sensitive to the reader.
But here goes, this is…My Dyslexic Education
This is the introduction to my second book, ‘My Dyslexic Education’ It is a book about my personal experience of schooling in Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. The book is a mix of narrative and poetry.
HELLD IN
They’re free,
I’m helld in,
They’re outside,
I’m helld in.
Sat in silence
large blackboard
from which to copy
with pencil from chalk,
but my work got lost
in transition to paper,
as what was copied was
muddled and mixed,
to be safer,
I’d scribble my writing,
to hide and disguise
my bad spelling
and
never quite finish,
so never,
ever,
achieving.
Out of class
the nightmares continued
with toilets outside
cold and damp and spiders in multitude.
The only relief came on the afternoons of
Friday,
although still a drill
of copying
and handwriting
onto paper
we could use
a variety
of bright coloured pencils.
Make no remark at my possible artistic use of the word ‘helld’, I originally wrote the majority of this poem in school around the age of 11 and that was how I thought it was spelt. The teacher pulled me up for my error of course in an initially condescending manner. She actually and eventually though said to keep it as ‘it made more of a point’.
I will be adding more from my book in future blogs.
My first book ‘Parent Days’ is available from me for £12.99 including UK postage.
