Betty Earl - The Shell and the Tear (1922)

Forgotten Poems #17: The Book of Lost Rhymes

—: The Shell and the Tear :—

I shaped a poem from a shell;
Its fragile curves I loved full well.

I shaped another from a tear—
A little human sorrow-sphere.
 
The first was formed with matchless grace;
Its thin perfection shone like lace.

The second, less divinely wrought,
Held only one shy, wistful thought.
 
I sent them forth, believing well 
The tear would come; would stay, the shell.

But lo, life knew another way! 
The shell came back; the tear did stay.

Betty Earl (p. 1917-23, etc.)

P: The Lyric (1917), American Poetry Magazine (1920), Tempo (1921), The Kindergarten Primary Magazine (1922), The Writers Monthly (1922+), The Editor (1923); A: The Poet's Pack (1921); short-stories, articles, etc.

From Nevada, Missouri.

Betty Earl (1923): “Imagination haloes effective writing, illumines and beautifies those phrases that a too-strong searchlight might mar. Images should be summoned, not stunned by excessive detail. Effective description inks the image, lifts the silhouette against the flame. Effective description is the wizard-wing, inducing vivid flight. Effective description is the lightning streak, followed by thunders of thought.”

  
        Fragments for Betty Earl
                  by Dick Whyte

●

       wrap your songs in feathers
            plant them in a large field
       and hope like hell
                 it rains—

●

       where do poems come from
           worlds bent into words?
       from the singers up on high
           those we call the birds—


                       xoxo
                         dw
 

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