Ashley

A little book of poems

Passed along when I was young

Not knowing of the journey 

That book had just begun

A book read nearly every night

By lamplight in the dark-

A spark.

A pencil and a notebook

With its front of glued-on shells

Let me discover for myself 

The magic words and spells

Progressing slow from couplet rhyme

To stanzas and quatrain-

A flame.

Now meaning, thought, and symbol

All freely flow from lead or ink

Unleashing all the dreams and thoughts

That I'm too shy to speak

The ideas, dreams, and wonder

Released by word or phrase-

A blaze.