By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
July 30, 2003
Barbie Christian bounced into the newsroom at The Meridian Star recently with two poems she wrote. One is about love. The other is about war.
Barbie is 8 years old. She will begin third grade soon at Southeast Elementary School. She is the daughter of Diane and Jeff Christian of Causeyville.
Eager to share the poems she wrote in May, near the end of her second-grade year, she handed over her little black book of poetry.
I like the way you smile
and the way you walk
the mile. Your love is
like a flying dove flying
high above.
War with Iraq
29 people have died in
Battle with Iraq. The
soldiers that didn't still
have our back. The soldiers
that were over seas
cared for our freedom.
Now that the war is done
life is more.
The poems were a surprise to her mother.
Barbie said she saw news about the war on television.
To some degree, Barbie credits actor Adam Sandler as her inspiration for writing poetry.
In the 2002 comedy movie, "Mr. Deeds," Sandler plays a small-town pizzeria owner and poet who inherits $40 billion.
She likes Dr. Suess, too. She said she likes writing poems from beginning to end: "After I get through with the poems I'm surprised and happy, and if you put me in the newspaper, somebody might give me $100."
Barbie is thinking about being a pediatric nurse when she grows up, but for now she concentrates on her poetry.