Why did I write it down?, by Joan Didion

Why did I write it down?
In order to remember. Of course,
but exactly what was it
I wanted to remember?

How much of it actually
happened?
Did any of it?
Why do I keep a notebook at all?

…

Although I have felt compelled
to write these things down
since I was five years old,
I doubt

that my daughter
ever will,
for she is a singularly blessed
and accepting child

delighted with life
exactly as life presents itself to her
unafraid to sleep
and unafraid to wake up.

Keepers of private notebooks
are a different breed altogether
lonely and hesitant
rearrangers of things

anxious malcontents
children afflicted
apparently at birth
with some presentiment of loss.

Joan Didion, from Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Some found poems

August, by Tove Jansson