All Over the Map

1969 RIBBONS OF MOONLIGHT      It starts with  The Highwayman .  A poem in Miss Abram’s class, Kings Road Primary School, Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa.  The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding— Riding—riding— The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.     I’m ten-years-old and each line in that story of tragedy and doomed love by Alfred Noyes is a whole new taste and I want more.        That same year I’m taking Speech and Drama classes with Auntie Audrey, my best friend’s mother, who lives two houses away.  We’re getting ready to recite our poems at an  Eisteddfod , a day of music and poetry performances.  We’ve practiced for weeks.  My poem is  On a Night of Snow  by Elizabeth Coatsworth.  Auntie Audrey reminds me to  enunciate  the ends of my words.   Don’t swallow your words  she says.      The poem is writt