Tag Archives: The Teenie Weenies

The Teenie Weenies: NaPoWriMo Day 1: April 1, 2024

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The Teenie Weenies were my favorite characters from the books of my childhood.
The captain, the school teacher,
All of the characters who supposedly frequentled the small hidden places of my life.
The closest to modern day Teenie Weenies are these model railroad figures.
They are meant to grace the scenery alongside the tracks.
You can see how many stories they tell.
From skating on thick ice
To everyday tales of domesticity
Me as a Teenie Weenie I”m the hammy one imitating the Sunbeam Bread girl.

The Teenie Weenies

An entire civilization of charming creatures whirled
through all the hidden spaces that frequented my world.
They came out in the shadows or the crevices or nooks,
but the only things we knew of them were what we read in books.

Although they once were my best friends, member after member
of that small world is now forgotten, I only remember
the Schoolmarm and the General. The other ones, I fear,
though they mined a fallen cherry to make preserves for the year,

alas, I have forgotten. There are not the slightest traces
of names to go with any of those cherubic small faces.
I remember interactions with mice and bumblebees,
but the rest is lost to memory. Forgive me, if you please.

Buried on some bedroom shelf is one book, worn and tattered
but long-preserved because some part of me knew that it mattered.
And once that NaPoWriMo ban has finally been lifted,
and my jungle of old books has been explored and sifted,

I’ll fill you in on stories that used to fill my dreams,
to stuff imagination until it burst its seams,
leading to that poet that here puts down this line
to share with you this favorite memory of mine!

The NaPoWriMo prompt for today is to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.

Night Fantasies and Other Reading Pleasures

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Night Fantasies and Other Reading Pleasures

 In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Bedtime Stories.” What was your favorite book as a child? Did it influence the person you are now?

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For his entire life, my dad was the storyteller in the house, but at night time, it was my mom who climbed into bed with me and talked me to sleep.  At first, she would make up the stories, perhaps fitting me into them, or weaving fantastic tales of everyday life that grew as I asked question after question.  (Present day bloggers may notice this same tendency in my comments! Sound familiar, “Relax”?)

One story would end, and of course, I demanded another.  Finally, she found a book of one-page stories to read to me, and when she got to the end of the first page, most nights she could be prevailed upon to read one or two more. To this day, I usually listen to a recorded book from Audible as I fall asleep.  As I’ve noted before, sometimes I wake up in the morning with the book still running and I wonder how it affects my dreams.

What a relief to learn to read in the first grade, so I could experience a new story whenever I wished.  From Dick and Jane to The Little Red Hen, I loved those simple plots that somehow grew so involved in my imagination.

Many of my favorite childhood books were lost in a tornado, but a few years ago, I found a number of others in my older sister’s library.  “A Walk in the City,” several Dr. Seuss books and my favorite of all times, “The Teenie Weenies” now reside on my own bookshelves.

It was in second or third grade that I became addicted to Nancy Drew.  Go HERE for that story.