Waiting to Waltz, A Childhood, by Cynthia Rylant and Illustrations by Stephen Gammell - Poetry

I guess, by now, I feel like a know Cynthia Rylant, on a friendly level. I feel like I have shared some of her memories as a child and laughed at some of the ironic occurrences. Rylant never ceases to strike the note of sincerity in me every time I read one of her books or works of poetry. She is a person who has really taken the time to analyze their own life and write about themselves. I wonder if this need to write was a psychological outlet for her, trying to deal with so many memories, both good and bad, from her childhood? Rylant’s collection of poems about her childhood, Waiting to Waltz, A Childhood, is no different. She manages to use simple words to convey so much meaning. In this collection, the simple words are so impactful that I don’t really think the illustrations are necessary. In fact, the illustrations took away from my reading, because at times they are a bit scary. I am not certain, but I do think that the illustrator, Stephen Gammell, was the illustrator for the books Scary Stories, and those frightened me as a child. Maybe that is why I would rather just read the simple, yet eloquent words, than look at the illustrations.

It is nice to read memoirs or poems about a person’s life, written by the person, so that I have a better understanding of how the characters in other books came about. I was revisited by Cletus (from Rylant’s book Missing May) in the poem titled “Pet Rock”. Roger was very much like Cletus, always hanging around and showing total devotion and interest in anything that Rylant wanted to do. Cletus was like this to Summer, constantly around her and Ob and not really taking the hint that he was not “liked”. Still, Cletus was aware to an extent of Summer’s feelings, as he didn’t really want to take her to meet his parents; for fear that they would recognize that Summer didn’t think as highly of him as they did. I bet Roger recognized this in young Cynthia, and like Summer, it took a bit of time for her to realize it, too.

It is good to know that children, for the most part, go through the same feelings and emotions that all other children go through. I believe that you can change the time period or the place and you would still have adolescents who go through feelings of needing to be accepted by their peers and wanting to be just like everyone else. The poem titled “PTA” really sounded this out, with Rylant obviously wanting to fit in and have her mother go to PTA meetings (which are a very boring experience, might I add!) and participate like the other mothers do. She does discover that her mother doesn’t have to go to PTA meetings to be important in the eyes of her peers when they turn to her after a classmate faints, because her mother is a nurse. I realize that we all judge ourselves more harshly than our peers typically do, and I think that Rylant realized this here, as well.

I found myself in some of the poems that were written and connected to what occurred in Rylant’s life. I am a Christian and have experienced some of the church incidents that Rylant experienced: I was scared after leaving a church that spoke tongues as a child and I have heard preachers who “yelled people to the Cross”. I can tell that Rylant does have a reverence for Christ, even if her opinion of “church” is not too high. She is an excellent writer who is very honest with her feelings.