I wrote this poem way back in 2006, while I was still in college. I liked it then and I like it now. Sure, I notice plenty of bits that aren’t up to my current standards of polish, but overall, it’s held up remarkably well (in my ever-so-biased opinion). And I still think the third stanza is one of the best things I’ve ever written.
“Austromenock” is pronounced ‘oss-TROM-in-okh,’ by the way. At least, that’s what I decided when I invented the word. Etymology: me.
Austromenock
Too young to fear, though not yet brave
We chanced the arbitrary wave
And scorned alike both home and shore
Disdaining legend’s wiser lore –
That beast of idle sailors’ talk:
Austromenock!The flashing night cascaded grim
On heaven’s flowering diadem;
We watched the sea uncoiling whip
Resurgent bellows past our ship.
Whose visage caused our craft to rock?
Austromenock!Omniscient eye! Serrated claw
And barnacle-encrusted maw!
Unnumbered arms – a panoply
Of suckered limbs beneath the sea
And thickened plates that interlock –
Austromenock!Behold our doom: the waters spoke;
Our hull they splintered at a stroke
And timbers swept like blades of grass
Pursuing that colossal mass
Whose wake released its aftershock:
Austromenock!Now I alone survive to tell
Of how my crew and captain fell;
I heed at last the banshee’s wail;
And if someday you brave the sail,
Remember, ere you leave the dock –
Austromenock!
Do you have any older work you’re still proud of?
Brian D. Buckley 
I like it, it’s got a beat to it. I don’t know about older works in their original form, but I do like coming back to older ideas and bringing them up to the current standard (i.e. What I started with Atlantia which I forced you to suffer through back in the day).
Rehabilitating older works is something I haven’t done all that much of. For some reason, I always want to start something new. Anyway, glad you liked the poem! I haven’t gotten a chance to read a lot of your posts this week, but I’m hoping to have time this weekend to catch up.
I know what you mean, I’m often driven to do something new. That’s why even when I come back to old ideas, I often find myself rewriting them completely. The kernel of the original story is there, but little else.
I loved this! It was my favorite little bit of your work so far that you’ve posted on this blog.
To answer your question, no I don’t have any older work that I’m proud of except for maybe one short story I still need to get around to extending (I’ll do it after I’m done Lightbearer, my current little novel). Everything else I wrote when I was in grades 1-7 and, well . . . Let’s just say I can’t imagine a three year old writing a very good story. Especially one that didn’t know where the keys were and so had chapters that were like, a page long.
Thanks, Alex!
To be honest, I also have a pretty low percentage of my old work that I still want to show off. And if you dug up my writing from seventh grade…yeesh!