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RINGS
by April Halprin Wayland
I finger Mama’s golden ring,
remembering when I ruled as king
a world wrapped round by icy bands.
One boy who ruled a luminous land.
I loved being part of a galaxy,
my planet swirling in its sea.
Some say mine was a wandering star
which lost its way, which sailed too far.
That was a long, long time ago.
Shhh…no one but my mama knows.
(c) 2011 Â April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved
The story behind the poem:
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I’ve fallen in love with the brand-new,
first ever eBook of children’s poetry which sells for 99 cents. 99 CENTS! Â Titled
PoetryTAGTime and compiled by luminaries in the world of children’s poetry,Â
Sylvia Vardell and Â
Janet Wong, the premise of this book is simple…and simply addictive. Each poet was invited to contribute one poem inspired in some way by the poem which comes before it.  Tag, you’re it! (Full disclosure: one of my poems—”World Wide Wag”—is included in this collection.)
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Note: you don’t need a Kindle or anything like that…you can read an eBook on a regular PC or Mac computer and many types of phones. You just need toÂ
download this free software.
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Today’s poem was inspired by the poem
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater contributed to this collection called “My Hand,” which begins:
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“Whenever I look / at my hand / I remember. / I once was a starfish / in love with the sea.”
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Isn’t that beautiful? Â I wanted to imitate Amy’s idea of looking at one thing and remembering a whole other life.
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My first attempt began:
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I look at my mother’s gold ring
and remember that I used to have nine rings.
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I did a little research about Saturn because of the rings. Worked some of the facts into the poem.  Wrote some more. Rhymed some more.  Discarded and started over.  Realized the child had not been a planet but a Little Prince who ruled a planet.
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So–what life did you once live? Â Tag–you’re it!
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