Stumbled across this lovely little poem the other day. I don’t know much about this poetess, but I’d love to learn more about her, based on this poem.
Song of Gray Things by Elizabeth-Ellen Long
In any weather, any day,
Much is lovely that is gray –
Driftwood smoothed to satin by
The tide’s cool fingers, early sky,
Lichen stars that lightly dapple
Stone walls around an apple
Orchard, birch bark, and the thin
Warped rails of fences holding in
Reluctant meadows, kittens’ fur,
Dried wild grasses sweet as myrrh,
As well as cobweb lace on eaves,
Sudden wind in willow leaves,
And pigeons proudly marching down
The slanted rooftops of a town.
~ Elizabeth-Ellen Long
I would also like to know more about her as I have seen a poem that has been an important part of my life for decades attributed to her.
Never put a kindness off,
never wait to say
the word of praise or sympathy
that someone needs today
lest suddenly it prove too late for anything but ruing
all the helpful thoughtful things
you never got round to doing.
– Elizabeth Ellen Long?
I know there is an author named Elizabeth Ellen but I do not think she is the same person as she appears much too young to have written a poem that I have known for decades and that the Stilwell-Democrat Journal wrote about in 1973.