Puppy Love is one of 2 new poems I wrote today to add to my camp
series of poems and I have 3 more in the works. I had previously written 15
poems (6 in 2006 and 9 in 2010) that are part of The Camp Series. I have
written these poems in the third person - the adult me looking back at me, the
child.
The Camp Series was written about my experiences at Camp Hostýn in
1961 & 1962. Camp Hostýn was about
50 miles outside of Montreal – the closest town was St. Calixte du Nord. It was founded in 1954 by Father Bohuslav
Janicek, a Czech Jesuit, for children of Czech and Slovak descent. I almost didn’t get to go to camp in 1961 as
I tried to swing on a clothesline and cracked my collarbone a few weeks before
we (my younger brother and I) took Greyhound buses from Chicago to Montreal.
The very first ‘publication’ of my poetry was in the official camp ‘pamphlet’ in 1962 (I was 11 and the poems were in Czech). Both of the poems was republished in the 1979 25th anniversary issue.
Puppy
Love
One of the
Older girls
 |
| photo art by AVR |
Would take her
When she went
To meet with
Her boyfriend
And he would
Take Peter
And so these
Ten year olds
Chaperoned
The two teens
On their walks
On the path
Through the woods
Laughing and
Talking and
Holding hands
Peter let
Her wear his
Cap for that
Whole summer
And made her
Believe that
He liked her
Her first crush
First love at
Camp Hostyn
Summer of
Sixty-one
©
Alice Vedral Rivera – 9/1/2013 6:15pm
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