PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG BOY

Tom is 9
going on
10

& pens
" a few little verses
about the sadness

of having to
start school again
every Monday morning."

already young
Master Eliot can see
THE WASTELAND

spreading
out
before him

"Monday is the cruellest day
breeding Mathematics
out of the deadened brain!"

"****...**** it...**** ya!"
"Language Thomas...language!"

"Shhhhh ...Tom...shushhhh!"
I comfort him.
"Shanti...shanti...shanti."

*

Valerie Eliot tells this tale of Tom when asked when he started writing and if there was anything left of such early efforts. This little bric-a-brac of emotion from Eliot's early early youth showed that the child was indeed the father of the man!

Reading INVENTIONS OF THE MAD HARE...showing Eliot's early work in its raw notebook state was a real delight for an Eliotian like me! Valerie's little reflection on Tom's early efforts always amused me and I could imagine him then being of the same demeanour as the Tom of the Waste Land.

The poem is a way of giving the little fella a hug 'cos I felt the same way myself about schools and Maths and Monday morning.