Helene Mullins - The Importance of Being (1922)

Forgotten Poems #24

—: The Importance of Being :—

 
       I am but a fragment
       Of the universe.
       Yet I am not so insignificant,
       For without me
       There would be a tiny crevice
       In the great bowl.
 

Helene Mullins (1899-1991)

P: Current Opinion (1921+), The Double Dealer (1921), The Forum (1921+), All's Well (1922), The American Poetry Magazine (1922), The Granite Monthly (1922), The Quill (1922+), The Wave (1922+), The Fugitive (1923), The Lyric West (1923+), Pegasus (1923), Overland Monthly & Out West (1924+), The Stratford Monthly (1924), The Commonweal (1925+), The Nation (1925+), The Bookman (1926), Contemporary Verse (1926+), The Step Ladder (1927), Voices (1927); A: Anthology of Magazine Verse (1922+), The Conning Tower Book (1926+), Current Catholic Verse (1926), Davis’ Anthology of Newspaper Verse (1926), Best Poems (1927); C: Earthbound & Other Poems (1929), Balm in Gilead (1930), Streams from the Source (1938), The Mirrored Walls and Other Poems (1970); plays, novels, short-stories, reviews, etc.

Lived in New York. Contributing editor of the The Quill; co-wrote the novel Paulus Fy (1924) with her sister Marie Gallegher.

Owner of an underground bookshop in New York: “Does Broadway read? And if so, does it pay for its reading? The answer will soon be known. A tiny book shop has been opened by Helene Mullins… The books she offers for sale are good things. New things which are fine. Nothing of the sensational. We hope she succeeds.” (The Quill, 1923)

 
        For Helene Mullins
              by Dick Whyte

particles—atoms—molecules—
cells—tissues—organs—
nerves—bones—muscles—

fatty—bloody—fleshy—
sack of
multiplicity—

     o me o my
          no me no i
               lo, endlessly
                    becoming we

 
                             xoxo
                               dw
 

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