A tribute to one of the greatest writers who ever lived.


Everything I Need to Know, I Learned From Hemingway

"Man is not made for defeat.
A man can be destroyed but not defeated"
These words from Papa Hank are true as can be
And so to myself must often be repeated.

No man ever spoke truer words, to my heart
My life lived by what his yet represents.
Should I wish to meddle in the affairs of others;
"All things truly wicked start from an innocence."

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."
Reminds me that caring and loving mean taking the step first.
There is no crime in being proved wrong
But judging rightly is the heart's boon reimbursed.

Of his prose - books have been written, enough has been said,
While most of the world forgets his gift of verse sublime
His maxim I've taken as my own – "All my life I've looked at words
As though I were seeing them for the first time."

The parley between author and reader akin
To carefully negotiated transaction.
But engagement is primary, exposition a crime,
"Never mistake motion for action."

"I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.
Most people never listen." Oh, but I do,
I stilled my wild soul, held my breathe until cold,
As my writer's heart listens to you.

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward,
Some are strong at the broken places."
So I feel his strength in the frame of my life
As his philosophy my poet's pen embraces

And there is my affinity, my ties to the quick
To the heart, soul and wit of the man
For "A writer's job is not to judge,
But to seek to understand.




Poetry by Reilley
Read 878 times
Written on 2009-02-27 at 13:47

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Purple Phoenix
A fitting tribute. Such humility in Earnest! Awe-inspiring stuff. ;-)
2009-02-27