Author: Eliana Liatti Beam
Alternate names: Eliana Beam
Born: Nov. 7, 1915
Died: Feb. 26, 2008
Dates: June 2, 2009
Bio: Blind poet and grammarian

ABOUT AND BY THE AUTHOR

When I finished with high school, the Depression was there; <BR>
Employment was ailing and gasping for air,<BR>
So, college was out, cardboard innersoles in,<BR>
Jogging unheard of, and everyone thin.<BR>
So, when ego was finally trampled to dust,<BR>
I took any old job. One does what one must. <BR>
As a second-maid then, unwilling but able,<BR>
I learned how to set a magnificent table,<BR>
With roses and candles and finger-bowls, too.<BR>
Oh, well, I can laugh and, believe me, I do!<BR>
Now let’s jump ahead to dictation and phones,<BR>
To dating and dancing, house-hunting and loans – <BR>
To a time when the pill was still bucking bad weather,<BR>
And our children, all five, arrived too close together.<BR>
With no time on my hands and no coins in my purse,<BR>
I taught myself how to write lyrical verse.<BR>
By the time I was publishing, safe in my stride,<BR>
Traditional poetry sickened and died. <BR>
I had thirty-one years with the love of my youth,<BR>
Now I wasn’t yet seedy nor long in the tooth.<BR>
With my kids out of school, it was my turn at last.<BR>
I took courses in Cleveland and Athens and passed!<BR>
With lyrical poetry dead in its grave,<BR>
I then turned to art and the solace it gave, <BR>
And when I got good, when I started to sell,<BR>
My eyesight betrayed me. Oh, dammit to hell!<BR>
And so I crocheted, and my work covered acres.<BR>
I gave afghans away ’til I ran out of takers.<BR>
Now talking books cheer me; I won’t go ’round the bend.<BR>
I can read with my ears and still laugh with a friend. <P>

© Eliana Liatti Beam
 <P>
Read full biography of Eliana Liatti Beam at <A HREF="http://www.elianabeam.com/about.htm">http://www.elianabeam.com/about.htm</A>