Now and then my mother gets it into her head to send me poetry I wrote when I was little. I have posted at least one of these before, but she just sent me these a moment ago, so I post her email in its entirety
(Early Works, age 11 or 12)
3.95
a number
a poem in itself
a mathematical complication, a 3 digital figure
or
Love – Beauty – Virtue – And other corny junk
Or
Chinese Noodles and fried asparagus noses
Or
Bleep
But all it really is – is 3.95.
***********************
What is a thought?
A being –
A state of consciousness –
Or even a butterfly?
The wind is a thought –
A thought from the creatures above
The rain is a thought (a soggy thought)
Even lifeless boogars are a thought
But – what is not a thought?
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next episode of Philosophical nonsense
Same time
Same station
1974 –
For one thing, I’ve always enjoyed photography and I love drawing and plants. I’ve always wanted to be a writer (I always have been anyway!)
I love flowers and birds, live beautiful bursts of color and energy, believe it or not, I think that even flowers have a personality.
I also like to read a lot. I started reading when I was about two, and I could read “Charlotte’s Web” when I was 3 and 1/2 . When I tell my friends this, they don’t believe me, but it’s the naked truth.
One thing that drives me crazy is slugs. I don’t mind snails, but slugs! Yuk!
P.s. This is only of the corniest things I’ve ever wrote.
Love from Mama
Otohime 
Brilliant early works from one of the world's great writers! Splendid inspired writing! And yes, I'm Nada's mom – and I'm also a fan.
Love from Mom
(aka Marilyn Gordon)
Mom, if these were dated 1974, I was ten. By eleven or twelve my writing was MUCH more sophisticated!
That's damned good stuff for 10! You must have been a precocious little brunette.
Recently I met a bright little girl while subbing in an elementary school. For some reason she kept calling me Mr. Vegetable Juice. I wanted to buy her a milk shake or something.
these were good.
at 11-12 i was writing rhymed stuff that were like bad heavy-metal lyrics. i was so embarrassed of that stuff that when i was 19 i burned all my journals and cassettes from adolescence and i deeply regret it- as well as love notes from girlfriends and their pictures… 😦 u r lucky to have this stuff. and of course my dad wouldve thought i was gay if he knew i wrote poems so u r lucky in that too haha
[the first one could've been written by an adult at Iowa and a few marxist analyses on it could exist by now]-
I have TONS of stuff, including all my diaries going back to age thirteen or so… luckily I am pretty much embarrassment-proof.