  Poetry
This week: Ellis Parker Butler Edited by: Stormy Lady  
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| This is poetry from the minds and the hearts of poets on Writing.Com. The poems I am going to be exposing throughout this newsletter are ones that I have found to be, very visual, mood setting and uniquely done. Stormy Lady |
An Old-Fashioned Garden
by Ellis Parker Butler
Strange, is it not? She was making her garden,
Planting the old-fashioned flowers that day-
Bleeding-hearts tender and bachelors-buttons-
Spreading the seeds in the old-fashioned way.
Just in the old fashioned way, too, our quarrel
Grew until, angrily, she set me free-
Planting, indeed, bleeding hearts for the two of us,-
Ordaining bachelor's buttons for me.
Envoi
Strange, was it not? But seeds planted in anger
Sour in the earth and, ere long, a decay
Withered the bleeding hearts, blighted the buttons,
And-we were wed-in the old-fashioned way.
Golden Silence
by Ellis Parker Butler
I told her I loved her and begged but a word,
One dear little word, that would be
For me by all odds the most sweet ever heard,
But never a word said she!
I raged at her then, and I said she was cold;
I swore she was nothing to me;
I prayed her the cause of her silence unfold,
But never a word said she!
I covered with kisses her delicate hand,
But she only glanced down where the sea
Low murmured in ripples of love on the sand,
And never a word said she!
I cast her hand from me with rage unsuppressed,
And she turned her blue eyes up to me
And smiled as she laid her fair head on my breast;
“What need of a word?” asked she.
On December 5, 1869, Audley Gazzam Butler and Adela Vesey welcomed son Ellis Parker Butler into their family. The family lived in Muscatine, Iowa. By the age of thirteen young Ellis had his first piece published, Shorty and Frank's Adventure. In 1885 Ellis started high school but drops out in 1887 at the age of seventeen to work at the Muscatine Spice Mills. In 1888 at the age 18, The Muscatine News publishes 43 installments of Butler's "The Mystery of the Unhandsome Cab."
In 1896 Butler got $80 for the story "My Cyclone-proof House. Which was published in Century Magazine. He then moved from Muscatine to New York City to work as an editor for an interior-decorating magazine. After only a year Butler moves on to another editing job, which again he didn't spend more than a year at. In 1899 He return to Muscatine. That June he married Ida Anna Zipser, who was ten years younger than he was. That following year, Butler and a business partner opened an upholstery dealer that had a monthly decorating magazine.
In August 1902 the Butlers had their first child, Elsie McColm. Two years later the couple had a little boy, Wallace Parker, who died before his first birthday. In September 1905 "Pigs is Pigs" was published in an issue of The American Magazine. That following year it was published as a book. In September 1906 The Incubator Baby is published. Then one month later Perkins of Portland: Perkins the Great was also published. Butlers work was published one right after another for the next year. With his writing taking off Butler sells his share of the upholstery dealer and his family takes an extended trip to Paris. Upon their return the Butler family moves to Queens, New York. Within the next year Butler had four more pieces published, "That Pup", "The Cheerful Smugglers", "Mike Flannery, On Duty and Off" and "The Thin Santa Claus".
On Christmas Eve, 1910, the Butlers twin daughters, Jean and Marjorie, were born. In 1912 Butler helps start the Authors' League of America. Butler becomes Vice President of Flushing National Bank in 1913 and over the next four years he has 35 of his stories published in magazines. The Butler's fifth child, a son, Ellis Olmsted, was born in 1914. In 1917 Dominie Dean is published followed Philo Gubb Correspondence School Detective in 1918 and Goat-Feathers in 1919. The Butler family then takes an extend vacation in California while filming Butler's "The Jack-Knife Man by King Vidor". In the 1920's Butler published, "How It Feels to be Fifty," "Swatty, a Story of Real Boys", "Ghosts What Ain't", "The Story of the Young Alligator-Hunters of the Upper Mississippi Valley" plus nine other stories.
In 1930, Butler is made director of Flushing National Bank. Over the next seven years Butler worked on many books. Dorna or The Hilldale Affair, published in 1930, Dollarature or, The Drug Store Book, A Young Stamp Collector's Own Book, in 1933 also that year, Jo Ann Tomboy. In February of 1935 Ellis Butler finished his last term as President of the Authors Club. Later that year his last book Hunting the Wow was published. Butler finished his career at the bank as President. Upon retiring he and his wife moved to Williamsville Massachusetts. Then on September 13, 1937 Ellis Parker Butler dies of cancer, and diabetes. It was reported that over two hundred people were at Butler's funeral. Butler is buried in the Flushing Cemetery.
Night In The City
by Ellis Parker Butler
The sluggish clouds hang low upon the town,
And from yon lamp in chilled and sodden rays
The feeble light gropes through the heavy mist
And dies, extinguished in the stagnant maze.
From moisty eaves the drops fall slowly down
To strike with leaden sound the walk below,
And in dark, murky pools upon the street
The water stands, as lacking life to flow.
With hopeless brain, oppressed and sad at heart,
Toil's careworn slave turns out his flickering light
And treads in dreams his dulling round again,
Where weary day succeeds to dismal night.
Cupid Caught Napping
by Ellis Parker Butler
Cupid on a summer day,
Wearied by unceasing play,
In a rose heart sleeping lay,
While, to guard the tricksy fellow,
Close above the fragrant bed
Back and forth a gruff bee sped,
And, to lull the sleepy head,
Played "Zoom! Zoom!" upon his 'cello.
Little did the god surmise
That sweet Anna's cerule eyes
Gazed on him with glad surprise,
Or that he was in such danger;
But the watchman bee, in haste,
Left his post that he might taste
of the honey nature placed
On the lips of that fair stranger.
Thus unwatched, from Cupid's side
Anna stole the boy god's pride,
All his love darts, and then hied
Far away from capture's chances
And today she wields the prize;
For Love's quiver still supplies
Darts that speed from Anna's eyes
In her love compelling glances!
Thank you all!
Stormy Lady
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The winner of "Stormy's poetry newsletter & contest" [ASR] is:
A yummy dream so delightful
It still lingers on my lips
I dare not open my eyes..
For fear that it will vanish
But as soon as the thought enters my head
I awaken fully and with a flash you are gone
Like the forgotten words of a lingering melody
Of a once beautiful song
A fantasy come true
You are all I'll ever need
But what should I do
To get you to return to me
Will it take a wizards evil spell
Or a witches' acid kiss,
A wish on a falling star...
Or an amended broken promise
Whatever is wrong I will make right
Whatever it will take is what I will do...
Anything to have you in my arms again
And to experience the magic of you
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Poetry: July 04, 2012 Issue [#5138]
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