3 Short Stories and 10 Poems was published in 1923. "The print run numbered only '300 copies, put out by friend and fellow expatriate, the writer- publisher Robert McAlmon,' writes Steve King at Today in Literature. 'Both had arrived in Paris in 1921, Hemingway an unpublished twenty-two-year-old journalist with a recent bride, a handful of letters of introduction provided by Sherwood Anderson, and a clear imperative: ‘All you have to do is write one true sentence.'"
CHAPTER HEADING
For we have thought the longer thoughts
And gone the shorter way.
And we have danced to devils' tunes,
Shivering home to pray;
To serve one master in the night,
Another in the day.
My collection of my personal poetry over the years is unpublished. As I read about the "drive to be heard" the "imperative to be published," that hasn't been a incentive for me. I am sharing this now, just to share it, and have no thoughts about it being anything other than something that I wrote a long time ago that resonated at that time and that, for whatever reason, was something that I hung on to until now.
BEING WITH YOU
Fortunate am I
Who you allow to share,
On occasion,
Those thoughts of yours.
Thoughts
That foliate your inner solitude,
So lush
That it overflows into your outer existence.
Tender tendrils
That lead me to speculate as to
The wonder
Of your private mind's jungle.
What tiger's thoughts
Stalk unsuspecting dreams?
A jungle dense
With the vine of hope.
And soft is the ground,
As quietly I pass.
Treading carefully
On thoughts of the past.
Not wanting to disturb
The natural processes
Of you.
Other's high rises
Don't belong
Neither imposed order,
Nor forced controls
For it is you
Who are a blessing to your friends
When you share with them
The living growing environment
Of yourself.
Betsy McDowell. Poem written to a friend in 1977 while working at MIT.
In his poem CHAPTER HEADING Hemingway writes of the double standard of pios inclinations brought down by "earthly vices." Hindsight has me better understanding the internal conflicts that are a part of the human condition.
When he writes, "For we have thought the longer thoughts and gone the shorter way," I can think of times in my life when I have done just that. The redemptive opportunity in this sense of falling short lies in being able to reflect on behaviors and outcomes and to learn, act, and adjust on an ongoing basis. There is as much opportunity in our failings to live up to our own expectations, as well as continuously raise the bar, as there is in our successes and accomplishments.
My poem was written around 1977 when I was working at MIT for Professor Michael Feld, in Laser Optics and Spectroscopy. That was an amazing time in my life where the world was my oyster. I found myself constantly in a state of amazement and wonder as life poured itself out to me and threw open doors and windows, sometimes breaching the ramparts themselves.
In his poem CHAPTER HEADING Hemingway writes of the double standard of pios inclinations brought down by "earthly vices." Hindsight has me better understanding the internal conflicts that are a part of the human condition.
When he writes, "For we have thought the longer thoughts and gone the shorter way," I can think of times in my life when I have done just that. The redemptive opportunity in this sense of falling short lies in being able to reflect on behaviors and outcomes and to learn, act, and adjust on an ongoing basis. There is as much opportunity in our failings to live up to our own expectations, as well as continuously raise the bar, as there is in our successes and accomplishments.
My poem was written around 1977 when I was working at MIT for Professor Michael Feld, in Laser Optics and Spectroscopy. That was an amazing time in my life where the world was my oyster. I found myself constantly in a state of amazement and wonder as life poured itself out to me and threw open doors and windows, sometimes breaching the ramparts themselves.
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