Cynsations Intern: Stephani Eaton on The Joy of Writing

Stephani Eaton, photo by Tanya OdomBy Stephani Eaton
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

When I was in second grade, I wrote a poem about an impending storm that pleased my dad so much that he hung it in his office. It stayed there for years.

I recently asked if he remembered what it said and he rattled off: “This dark and rainy noon will soon pass the sunset of time.”

I had to laugh at the melodrama of my seven-year-old self. Laughed and said, “What on earth does that mean?”

He defended my fir...