Natural Born Poetry

There's writing for children and then there's children's writing. NYU professor and poet Sharon Olds says in the Orlando Sentinel that everyone is born a poet.

Since we all are talking all the time, any writing that you see on the part of a child is, until they have learned how to do the cliches, just all fresh and original. "You can't find a first-grader who writes bad poetry. The gift of writing, the ability to write poetry is something that has to be actively taken away from you. Which our culture's happy to do, as most cultures are," she says

Hm. Is this true? I mean, obviously a small child isn't going to write anything "bad" persay. But aren't some kids better at poetry right from the start than others? Worth pondering.