American writer, historian and poet Elizabeth Fries Ellet died #OTD in 1877.
She is best known for her works on womenβs contributions to American history, particularly during the American Revolutionary War. Her extensive research and writings helped to highlight the often overlooked roles that women played in significant historical events.
"Like southern birds, whose wings of light
Are cold and hueless while at restβ
But spread to soar in upward flight,
Appear in glorious plumage drest;
The poetβs soulβwhile darkly close
Its pinions, bids no passion glow;
But roused at length from dull repose,
Lights, while it spurns, the world below."
LIKE SOUTHERN BIRDS. Poems, translated and original (1835)
~Elizabeth Fries Ellet (October 18, 1818 β June 3, 1877)
Silvery grey
A strong wind
Blows from the west
Slows my progress.
Im on the edge of sunlight
A watery shadow
Moves before me
Stretching out
Over the wall
Over to where
The Curlews call
In soft whispers
To treasures
Hidden in buttercups
Rusty dock and sorrel
Skylarks are singing
Over the yarrow.
And time is flying
Hurtling headlong
Into mid-summer #poetry
Laughter like
Sediment at
The bottom
Of my lungs
And the tempest
Rises, shifts,
Wild roses
Forced to
Bloom on
My skin,
Iβve cried
Rivers just
To watch you
Drown.
Iβve cried rivers
Just to die of
Thirst.
it was comfort-shaped
until it wasn't, unclear
why the change arrived
strange, on a train from nowhere
to an unseen trap
unclean and spitefully laid
trees and boughs no place
for you as you choked - sudden
public property
in ways you weren't in the past
a day out with them
"perhaps a dress, my darling,
instead of those old leggings"
you apply pressure
knowing its effect on me
disproportionate
to the words you choose with care
for their innocence
each small noise an atomic
shattering in me
every frail limit transgressed
my whole world moved, unasked for
step in for a hug
dissolving like sunburnt fog
a damp fade, disappointment
and there's just shadows
sleep sour across a drunk tongue
cheap building laughter creaking