When I Write
Members of the new Memoir Group are making progress in documenting their memories. This month, Viv Sheffield considers the stories she wants to tell.
When I write I’ll take my time
to tell the story that is mine.
This snapshot of my life will be
a chink into the past you see.
The way things were back in the day
when children went outdoors to play.
Before the world wide web was born
and mobile phones could not be torn
away from people’s hands for long
and policemen, they were never wrong.
When I write I want to show my son
that I had a life before I was ‘mum’
I too was young and full of beans
with an energy he rarely sees.
Mini skirts, maxi coats, hot pants,
platforms, tie-dye tees,
Psychedelic totes, love-ins, kaftans
and of course, Simon Dee,
Mary Quant, Twiggy, the Stones and Cream,
Biba and long hair, thus far not seen.
When I write I want readers to say
that the people I’ve met came to life that day.
Their opinions, their hardships put down in print,
but of all the rest I can only hint.
I hope that their personality, humour, and peculiar ways
speak out from the past, so we can hear what they say.
They’ll talk of experiences, both good and bad,
of events in their lives that might make readers sad.
People who touched my life will be there
and how they impacted me too to be fair.
When I write I become so involved in my book,
tap-tap-tapping the keys, with no time to look
at the time of the day, or of the night
because I’m not stopping till I get it right.
Once I’m happy with it, satisfaction runs deep,
though I might be more critical after a sleep.
Give it one last revision, no time to waste,
in case I missed out something important, in haste.
If there is a beginning, a middle and a firm end,
then off to the printer this chapter I’ll send.