Once upon a time when I was young
The paper came in the mornings
My mother made me breakfast.
Presidents and Popes
Who won who lost?
All on toast.
My days centred around school
A mile or so away by foot
A walk each morning, hail, rain or shine.
Frustrated women
Locked in bad habits
All in ink.
Books were rare many passed down my way
I was soon lost in new worlds, new friends
Famous Five, Biggles, Chums and all that.
Saturday library
A book for the week
Always read.
At school I learnt hard lessons, often.
Rote learning, times tables, maps,
Singing and weekly piano lesson.
School never pleasant
Meet expectation
All day.
Punishments, humourlessness prevailed
All day every day, saved by recess sport
Make up games of great import.
Cricket and footy
Establish your name
All at break.
No special programs, only a cuts tally
Greg Burgess way in front of everyone
Lazy Lawler locked in the cupboard all day.
The stick swung daily
No compromise ever
All for God.
My world so small, family influential
Dad worked, hard task master, unfair at times
My mother’s generation’s naïve view of the world.
Cocoon like living
We heard but never knew
All on air.
Once upon a time I lived in a closed world
Eyes were opened by history, literature
Knowledge, education, enlightenment.
Then I grew up
Perspective widened
All now good?
Creating my own form is a fascinating exercise. In many ways I feel I have done that in lots of the poems I have written. I don’t model on anyone even though I have read so many over the years and here in d’verse my eyes are constantly opened with every challenge.
So for me in this poem I have taken each tercet and coupled it with a structured three lines 5 -5 -3 syllable structure, along with using those three lines to add commentary to the tercet.
Written for: http://dversepoets.com/2014/04/10/meeting-the-bar-diy-inventing-your-own-form/
Morpethroad 
Ah, it is good that, as an adult, one does not any longer live in a closed world. I think sometimes when one is young one sees only from one’s parents’ perspective…but eventually one learns to see using one’s own viewpoint.
So true Mary and thank you for your comment. Growing up does allow one to broaden ones perspectives.
Michael, I loved the Famous Five and read the whole series. Your poem makes me wonder what eyes are opened by now, probably not always by “history, literature / Knowledge, education, enlightenment”.
Thanks Gabriella. That’s a very good comment, much has changed hasn’t it today’s children are much more aware than we ever were.
Interesting challenge, which I thought you met well. The poem itself is very good too, we do grow up and our horizons broaden with that, which can only be a good thing.
Thanks Jackie, it is a good thing even though confronting to find our horizons broadening. Good comment.
cool…i like how it goes back and forth from longer verse to tight little haiku like pieces….it gives it an interesting meandering pace..books opened up so much of the world to me…so i own much to them as well…they were escape and they were playground…
Thanks Brian, they opened so many worlds to us. Thanks again for your comment.
Sounds like Catholic school to me – been there and definitely understand that!
I am not sure I completely know how to re-create your form – but as I gather – it’s a set syllable poem with commentary on the previous stanza. It’s very inventive and effective, however. Job well done!
Thank you Gay, I think my form may be very uniquely me. Yes catholic school it was. 1960’s.
It’s good when our perspectives widen…far too often, I think, the reverse happens. Great poem!
Thanks so much Bryan.
Your form seems to augment the storytelling in the poem. I like it!
Thank you so much, I was trying to achieve just that.
My mother shared the Enid Blyton Books with me as a young woman. Never the famous five, but the Folk of the faraway tree and the enchanted wood. Oh how I loved them..
My mother later brought me a wonderful edition of the books that were filled with colorful and vibrant illustrations. Those illustrations had an influence in the way I like to draw and produce art as and young girl and now an adult.
Later on, my grandfather gave me Biggles books and I found myself distracted for hours.
Lovely read, Michael.
Thank you Lou I’m so pleased you found a connection in my work.
It feels like a form very suited to ambling and meandering – very flexible. And I like the way you don’t just wax nostalgic about the good old days, as so many people do, forgetting some of the less savoury aspects of those days.
Thank you Marina I am happy you see it as a flexible form as that is how I like to write, language and form should be as flexible as we can make it that we discover new forms and shapes language can take.
I am with Brian M I like the pace, I meander then I pull the reins in, catchy, you clever boy you, the stick swung daily..loved that verse. Our perspective on the world widened, but sometimes it’s nice to remain cocooned. Interesting structure and detailed write Michael.
Thank you Jenny a very generous comment. Our pasts afford us a wealth of memories good and bad.
You are welcome.
This is very nice.. almost like a versified haibun.. I like those childhood memories a lot.. Myself I’m happy that the cane was never used by teachers or parents…
I am happy that it isn’t used NOW, in my day we had a few sadistic teachers who used it liberally. Thanks for you comment Bjorn, I appreciate you reading my work.
This is great! 🙂
I like the format.
I enjoyed how you relayed a story from your childhood days & bring us up to growing up in the end.
Thanks so much RoSy. I did enjoy the creating/composing bit of this. For me it was a challenge to make the second stanza not only 5-5-3 but connect it to the previous free tercet. Thanks again for reading and your comment.
Nicely done. I realized I was of your mother’s generation but forced into reality. Perfect title.
Thank you Victoria I guess it’s good to think you could connect with my poem. Thanks again.
first…I like how each of the 5-5-3 stanzas spoke to the previous stanza. Very neatly done.
second…I particularly like the last four stanzas and how you chose to make the last line a question instead of a statement. Nice!
Thank you so much, I am pleased you have seen that in my poem. Not sure how ‘new’ it is but I did enjoy creating it in that way. The question at the end is deliberate. Thanks again for your great comment.