Beginnings

13.15: When I was a kid beginning something was the worse time and the best time. The blank pages of a notebook were full of possibilities. The filling of them such a chore, and sometimes a disappointment. And always there was the lure of abandonment. But occasionally something valuable got said. And there's nothing quite as stimulating as the smell of the new. One of the joys of the last few days: dipping into Ted Hughes's Collected Poems for Children. There's at least one wonderful line on every page. Usually more.