Hidden in Plain Sight, Emerging Into the Light
Five years before Emily Dickinson’s poetry made its appearance in an 1890 Higginson-prefaced volume from a Bostonian publishing house [Roberts], New York publisher Cassell and Company released a book of poetry by twenty-six-year-old Helen Gray Cone [1859-1934] that received critical acclaim [Oberon and Puck, 1885]. In 1886, William Morton Payne of The Dial described the book as “a more ambitious kind . . . unusually full of promise.” [1]
Cone’s debut book of 1885 is a compilation of sixty-six highly lyrical, formal verse poems, many of which respond intertextually to works by authors, visual artists, and composers, such as Shakespeare, Dante, Boccaccio, Bastien-Lepage, and Bach, and often with a metaphysical poetic flair. Human condition themes explore ideology-and-effect, such as in the poems “The Conservative,” “The Liberal,” and “The Inheritance.” Her poems advocate women’s authority over their lives. Her sonnet “The Resolve” is in this collection.
Upon publication by Houghton Mifflin in 1891 of Cone’s second book, The Ride to the Lady and Other Poems, The Critic wrote, “The outlook for the future of poetry in this country grows distinctively brighter…”. [2]
In 1892, Payne [in The Dial] wrote that Cone had accomplished “advance in precision and in dramatic force.” [3] I delineate Cone’s oeuvre into three time periods, the Second Period being her Professional Poet Years of June 1876 to 1891, of which only these two of Cone’s poetry books — her nineteenth-century poetry— reside.
My intent is to bring Helen Gray Cone’s nineteenth-century poetry — and the poet herself — out of the shadows and into the view of Cone as a metrical pre-modernist, intertextual, female-empowerment poet of metaphysical finesse.
Poems that establish Helen Gray Cone’s identity as a poet are found in her nineteenth-century poetry, the striking poems that have been overlooked with virtually no inclusion in twentieth-century century and contemporary anthologies.
These are the poems of her first two books — Oberon and Puck (1885) and The Ride to the Lady and Other Poems (1891).
By Mary Dezember
Author of stories and poetry as portals to possibilities.
Read here to find out how to enter birthday celebration contests and attend birthday celebration events!
Wild Conviction was published at the end of July 2023.
It has been an exciting first year for me and for Twilight, Spirit and friends — and a successful year for a debut novel!
I am grateful to all of you who have been and continue to be on this great wild conviction adventure with us!
I hope you can participate in one or more of our First Birthday Celebration Contests and Events!
See below for the Events and Contests with Prizes for which you must be a subscriber to my newsletter to win or attend. If you are not yet, you can Sign Up at the bottom of this page.
What we do not see
Are the vibrations fine-tuned
We call
Kindness,
The quick incanting.
If we listen closely
We might say,
This is angel song —
Today, May the Fourth, 2024 — in honor of great SCI-FI, great SCIENCE, and great CREATIVE WRITING — I will post about my role model Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022) and my dear, clever friend Karen Hellinger (1972-2024) — who were relatives — the NMT Sci-Fi Convention in 2008, and my caring, brilliant friend, gentle soul, Dr. Scott Zeman (1969-2020).
By Mary Dezember
Author of stories and poetry as portals to possibilities.
Did you know that there are many books available for FREE or for a very LOW COST?
I have found many books I want to read that are free or from $0.99 to $2.99. There are books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Usually, the free or lower price offers are for a limited time per book, but every day, there are new books to explore.
By Mary Dezember
Author of stories and poetry as portals to possibilities.
As I was writing my novel Wild Conviction, I made gifts that corresponded to the events in the novel. The story spans three years in antebellum America—1858 to 1861.
Making these historical items “actualized” some aspects of what I was writing.
Having them around me feels as if I am in the scene of the some the novel’s action.
I gave and still give some of the gifts pictured to my friends so that, as they read the novel, they can see where their gifts fit with the action.
If someone you know is intrigued by history, giving them any of these gifts along with the novel is a “novel” way to “travel back in time.”
On this Thanksgiving, I want to quote part of my 2023 New Year’s blog post “Happy 2023: A Key to Unlock Prosperity”:
The Choice
If I think of all of ways I can unlock my day, I can label each way as a key.
For example, I could choose the Angry key. Or, I could choose the Rejection key. I might chose the Unloved key. I could choose the Lonely key. How about the Why Me key? Or, my favorite key, the Misunderstood key.
On and on, I could choose those Downer keys.
Or, I could choose a Wonder key, one that unlocks wonder, even the wonder of all unexpected events.
You do know two magic words. The words are:
What if?
In a creative life, the words “What if” are magic. They can launch life plans and artistic creation.
What if ____________________________________?
How would you fill in the blank?
The answer sparks an idea. Once an idea is spoken or written, magic begins.
That is because, spoken or written, the answer—the idea or the “plan”—has become material, in the sense that it has moved from thought to the spoken or written word.
Customer Reviews of books are so important.
If you would, please tell others about my books. Word-of-mouth recommendations are always effective and much appreciated.
But—in today’s market, a kiss of death for a book’s success is having few reviews on Amazon. So leaving a customer review on Amazon is so helpful.
Leaving reviews on Goodreads and BookBub is also really helpful.
If you would, after you have read any of my books, leaving a customer review would be awesome.
Think of it not as a book review—a book review sounds time-consuming and maybe even daunting.
Instead, think of it as a customer review—like you review products on Amazon.
Just a couple of sentences is great!
Here are some things to know first:
CALLING ALL WHO LOVE FINDING LITERARY FIGURES IN STORIES!
There are several actual historical literary figures in WILD CONVICTION.
They might be mentioned.
Or they might make an appearance.
They might not even be the literary figure we know of when the story takes place, as they are young and haven’t gotten to that part of their life yet.
If they make an appearance, they were actually in the place mentioned by the story.
CONTEST RULES:
I had a Wild Conviction vision.
It took decades of wild conviction for me to create this vision into a reality.
WILD CONVICTION is here.
I am filled with joy.
I would so love for you to join me in celebrating its publication at my
WILD CONVICTION Reading & Release Celebration!
I was fortunate to be in France with my daughters April 1 through April 7.
A rare, special light that looked like what love must look like shifted each day to the realm of extraordinary.
Moments blossomed into a certain magic created by this astonishing sunlight.
I captured a bit of the sense of these wonder moments in some of my photos. And I wasn’t trying. No matter what photo I took, it seemed the sun figured out how to sneak in to make a glorious appearance and add its magic.
After some difficult—even devastating—recent past years, I hesitate to say or write Happy New Year. Instead, I have chosen to pinpoint the year. Somehow, that feels different to me.
So, Happy 2023!
Also, I am making a list of my accomplishments and growth in 2022 rather than looking back at the bad and believing that just because it is now 2023, all will be better.
I am making my gratitude list: All that I have to be thankful for in 2022. And all that I foresee in 2023 that I will be thankful for.
Additionally, I am listing what I have planned for 2023, with specific “accomplishment dates.”
Will these lists make 2023 better than 2022?
I am excited to share with you the gorgeous, excellent cover for Wild Conviction!
It is inspired! The cover—art and design—is by nirbheek, a designer with Fiverr, Freelance Services Marketplace.
I am absolutely thrilled with nirbheek's creativity, work, and originality. It was an honor to work with him.
Nirbheek has exceptional vision, perfectly capturing in his art and design the "atmosphere" of my novel and of the strong, determined protagonist, sixteen-year-old Twilight, with her mystical horse, Spirit.
For me, it is such a joy to look at this cover. It almost leaves me speechless.
Soon, behind it, will be the pages of Twilight’s story and her wild conviction.
