My Own Voice

When I was keeping my diary in high school I titled each day’s entry. “My Own Voice” was the title of the entry for October 21, 1981. I remember one of the poet-teachers in the after school poetry class said to me something like, “You’ve found your own voice.” I don’t remember having heard the phrase before. Although I don’t include the precise context in the entry I do describe a class exercise. Maureen Hurley offered up two of her own poems and we created variations of them. At the end of the class Maureen said to me, “You deserve applause.” Worth noting in the diary!

I recall I’d written a one-act play, “The Wish is the Way”. I’d given it to my drama teacher, Mrs Connolly. She did not read it. Naturally since she didn’t read it she did not give me her thoughts on it, no criticism, no praise. I wonder, if I’d received the sort of encouragement and dynamic example in playwriting that I did in poetry if I’d be a playwright rather than (or as well as) a poet.