On an earlier thread, we had a couple of early poems by Ernest Hemingway and they were not very impressive.

There are a dozen of them here:
<[www.geocities.com] />
BY CHANCE, last night when I was browsing the Special Collection (in a glass case! with a lock!) at a bookstore in Queens, I found a collection of Hemingway's poetry called "88 POEMS BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY." I didn't buy it and I didn't copy out any, but I sat and perused it with genuine perusal, and here's what I thought.

FIRST - "Blank Verse" was written before Hemingway had racked up much war experience. There's very little there from the period after he'd fought in a couple of wars, and those later ones were the best, in my opinion.

SECOND - Hemingway wrote a poem here, a poem there... the "88 POEMS" were gleaned from newsletters and op-ed pieces and drafts of other things. You don't get the impression that he thought of himself as "A Poet"; rather, he just occasionally dashed off something in verse. (There's even one ABOUT WRITING which is about being blocked and how to get started writing prose again -- as if writing poetry didn't count.) Some are little rhymed verses making fun of people and some are stream-of-consciousness shell-shock meditations. I can't imagine that he ever thought of himself as a poet with a body of work or a style.

THIRD - Only a few were intended for publication, and I'm still furious at the people who published TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT -- defying his explicit wish to NOT have it published because it wasn't finished! -- and also at the people who criticised it. So I think it's wrong to draw any conclusions about Hemingway The Poet even if you read all the poems he ever wrote. We DO NOT have a collection of poems that Hemingway himself considered representative of himself.

So, in conclusion: I liked some of them. I liked some lines in others. And that, in the words of Forrest Gump, is all I have to say about that.

Marian....where in Queens...my mom's from Ozone Park, and my dad's from Long Island City

One of my favorites:

like canadians
by Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961)
I like Canadians.
They are so unlike Americans.
They go home at night.
Their cigarettes don't smell bad.
Their hats fit.
They really believe that they won the war.
They don't believe in Literature.
They think Art has been exaggerated.
But they are wonderful on ice skates.
A few of them are very rich.
But when they are rich they buy more horses
Than motor cars.
Chicago calls Toronto a puritan town.
But both boxing and horse-racing are illegal
In Chicago.
Nobody works on Sunday.
Nobody.
That doesn't make me mad.
There is only one Woodbine.
But were you ever at Blue Bonnets?
If you kill somebody with a motor car in Ontario
You are liable to go to jail.
So it isn't done.
There have been over 500 people killed by motor cars
In Chicago
So far this year.
It is hard to get rich in Canada.
But it is easy to make money.
There are too many tea rooms.
But, then, there are no cabarets.
If you tip a waiter a quarter
He says "Thank you."
Instead of calling the bouncer.
They let women stand up in the street cars.
Even if they are good-looking.
They are all in a hurry to get home to supper
And their radio sets.
They are a fine people.
I like them.



"It looked dead. It wasn't"
Ernest Hemingway's Frank Stein

I was aware that Hemingway had written some poetry, but had never read any of it. I love Hemingway, too. I always thought F. Scott Fitzgerals should have been a poet instead of a novelist.

<[www.geocities.com] />

"Blank Verse"

Clearly the best poem on the site, yep.

Ernest M. Hemingway - sounds like dactyl fodder. I'm thinking the last line could be 'shotgun for lunch'.

It was a double barrel and he pulled the second trigger AFTER the first, you know.

No, I did not know that. Turns out he had the slug (or maybe it was buckshot) for breakfast, so that kills my first choice for an ending anyway.

For anyone who wants to go looking for the poems in a library or on line, the EDITOR'S name is Nicholas Gerogiannis.

Johnny - the bookstore is called SPOONBILL BOOKS and it's on Bedford, two blocks from the Bedford station on the L.

Shotgun for brunch?

pam

Yes, Pam. And you can still buy it, only the name was changed to GRAPE NUTS.

Thanks Marian ! I'm usually trapped in Nassau Co but get that way once in a while !

Cranium - Rainium
Ernest M. Hemingway
Living in Africa
Learned to eat bugs;

Back at his homeland he
Ritualistically
Ended his days with a
Breakfast of slugs.

Excellent, yet disgusting!

pam

A true story:

New York City
at the Plaza
sitting at the Oyster Bar

There beside me
sunglassed blondie
skin just like a movie star

So I offered
her an oyster
really...just to be polite !

She said no thanks
not too hungry
eating crackers..staying light

"last time that i
ate an oyster?
paris maybe ? I don't care!

sometimes I find
I'm in Paris
and I dont know why I'm there"

So my thought was
"who's THIS bimbo""
i made up a quick excuse

She said "I must
have a liedown"
and went back to her recluse.

Moments later
met my friend there
he said "how was Hemingway?"

"Guess you don't know
that was Margeaux"
oh the ones that get away !

where did that come from?

Talia,

that was my true story...it happened to me in 1983 when my friend worked the front desk at the Plaza and I used to hang out there sometimes.

MARIAN !

Went to Spoonbill's website.....I need your opinion...is it worth $25 ?

not the content, I mean the appearance of the book itself.

thanks

Very cool story! Even if it isn't true, sure does make a prety neat poem.

Thanks Talia

Johnny, there are certain questions that, in my opinion, a wise person does not answer.

One is: "Do you think it's okay for me to park here?"

Another is: "Does this make me look [fat, short,whatever]?"

And I am not going to render an opinion on whether that book is worth $25 to you. I will volunteer this much: If I were considerably richer, it would be worth $25 to me--though I'd feel bad shelving it when the NYPL doesn't own a copy.

Thanks for your obtuservation. <>

Seriously, I appreciate the time you took to respond .

I should have been more specific....did it appear to be a quality book, nice binding, cover, is it appealing to the eye?

PS

Since there's a big gulf between being a wise person and a smartass, here's my responses to questions such as you said shouldnt be answered:

Q: Do I look fat in this dress?
A: You'd look fat in ANY dress !

Q: Does this make me look thin?
A: No. Losing WEIGHT will make you look thin.

From the "Breezy Brisbane" lodge of the He-Man Women Haters Club
Our motto: Us guys look good in ANYTHING, and we'll all show up for an event wearing the same thing and be HAPPY about it !

From today's Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1961 that Ernest Hemingway committed suicide. He was living with his wife in Ketchum, Idaho, and shot himself in the head with a shotgun. His father had also killed himself, and Ernest suffered from depression his entire life. He once wrote, "Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. [The writer] grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates."

pam

margeaux too....Hemingway killed himself on the anniversary of his fathers death and Margeaux was only one day off, so it was today....I think 1996?

Writer's Almanac said today was the day of Ernest's Hemingway's death in 1961.

Okay, I think I figured it out......she was FOUND on July 2, which was E Hemingway's date of death, but had been dead for a day so thats why I was confused.....i remeber hearing at the time that she was off by a day.

No, I should have read your message more clearly. I thought you'd been to the STORE, not just the website.

YES, the book is well designed, one poem per page, and in excellent condition. It's not coffee-table gorgeous, but it's fine.

Thanks, Marian....I don't get out much! I work in Westbury and live in Coram, rarely get to the boroughs...Manhattan more than others if I do.

I might buy it.......something's telling me that I should...what with the coincidence of the anniversay of the suicides and all.....I promise to will it to that building where people can read between the lions !