BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE

Joan Gwendolyn Taylor Newby

To My Beloved Mother
Helen Inez Jones Taylor
1920-1996
Granddaughter of John Calvin (Pappy) Childs born in 1847

It was this beautiful and talented lady who introduced me to poets Dunbar, Hughes, Poe and Longfellow, William Shakespeare and the beautiful poetry and songs of the great NEGRO SPIRITUALS.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Butterflies
A Walkin’
Miss C. Miss J. Miss M.
Letter To Laura
In Her Honor
Langston Hughes, With Love
Nostalgia
I’ll Be A Cat Bird And Shut Your Mouth
John Calvin Childs
How Good It Feels To Be Loved By Me

Introduction

At seven or eight years old, I tried to memorize a portion of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, Hiawatha. I can’t remember how long I tried. My mother coached me after school, but it was obviously not to be. I felt a real sense of disappointment, especially to my mother, until she hugged me and told me how well I had done.

A spark had been ignited, however, and poetry became a new love; right up there with piano lessons, playing hide and go seek, and walking to the creek with my grandmother to pick fresh greens. I developed a knack for rhyming in the third grade and became the class poet. But, those luscious poetic feelings began to change drastically….from pure pleasure to deep regret.

I was requested to write poems on demand to the extent that I felt this was being incorporated in my teacher’s lesson plans. The fear of not being able to rise to the