The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-09-09
John Temple Groves
Poetry" Bares Human Emotion

| "Poetry" Bares
"She stood in the moonlight
| Out on the piazza,
There was no one so beautiful
as her.
One advantage Of beginning
this column with a line of verse
is that it puts me in contact viii
so many writer's of lines Of
verse.
They send much original poe.
try to be printed here. It's amaz.
ing how many there are, in how
many walks and ways, and with
how many degrees of ability.
This is free enterprise at its
finest, say.
When Andrew Fletcher said
give me the making of the
songs Of nation and / care not
who makes its laws he might
have added a kind word for the
amateur song and verse writers
Of a nation.
An amateur poetry writing ma.
ton is bound to come out right
Yes, people in droves still
write original poetry = even
though television, radio and the
movies are supposed to be driv-
ing all creativeness from u.s.
making us consumers rather
than composers.
IT'S QUITE A PROBLEM fol
US Of the press. l have found
through the years that you can
insult a mans politics. ignore
his religion. reject his economies
ard even be unkind to his kin.
folks, but the one thing he can't
take is any slightest reflection
on his submitted poems.
If people only knew how many
other people write poems, too
they wouldn't have quite such
furious pride of authorship.
IN NOT PRINTING CONTRIBU.
tons Of poetry I know l miss oui
on some excellent ones. But once
let down of the bars = and the
rest is avalanche! And bitter re-
proach. I've had to make a rule
that ! print only my own poetry.
Fellow amateurs will have to 90
and get themselves a column of
their own.
Why can't more Of it be
thought of as an avocation need
ing no public print, a self-ex-
preston, a release, a whistle or
song while you work? I know
people who do think Of it and
write it that way. 1t never &C.
ours to them to seek print.
POETRY HAS IT'S MIS-USES,
too. MY father was fond of tell
ing of one against him when he
was a school-book salesman long
ago. After he and his competi-
tor had appeared before a county
board one night the competitor
praised my fathers books high
ly: But. ladies and gentlemen
OF a God-respecting community, +"
ne said. there is a browning OBJ
lection to Mr.. Graves books.
They tend to the irreligious.
They are not even always re-
spectful of the Deity. I'll lust
open one anywhere here (he had
a place carefully marked) and
what do I see! Coleridge's The
Ancient Mariner and what are
the first words I read? Listen:
Nor dim nor red.
Like Gods own head
The glorious sun uprist.
Now I ask you, church going
men and women. ask you if
you want your boys and girls
brought up in a belief that your
God is a red-headed God?"
THIS COLUMNS LONG CON
tention that in passenger miles
OF travel the automobile traffic
death toll may be actually less
during a holiday period than an
ordinary one cover 100 a day.
gets the attention at last Of the
National Safety Council whose
Mr.. Paul Jones explains that the
holiday death toll represents
immediate deaths" while the
ordinary one includes ultimate
deaths and includes people who
die later on. The holiday total
doesn't include either those who
die later or those who were in
iured earlier and die during the
period, ! presume.
Nevertheless it is a magnifi-