Flights from the Lowlands

By Florence Morris Rose

BOOKREVIEW.COM has rated this book EXCELLENT! An extraordinary womans early writings capture both the stirrings of her individual spirit and her distinct observations of early 20th century America its legacies and struggles. Flights from the Lowlands was first published by Florence Roses son, Ward, for an Okmulgee [Oklahoma] High School printing project in 1935. Two daughters, Irva Rose Montijo and Nadine Rose Frary Kimball edited and published Flights from the Lowlands again in 1982, and her eldest granddaughter, Edi Montijo Chapman has edited this third edition. These early poems are for readers to devour or browse as they wish. Florence Rose would be delighted to know her words are finding new minds to stir.

Poems in this collection feature local and international topics of the day; of the survival struggles in the Depression; of relationships; of heroes; of the angst of writing, and many celebrate the joy of life and beauties of nature. Flight itself was a very contemporary enterprise, intriguing the author, even before she took her first flight. Ancient Greek heroes, American Revolutionaries, post-Civil War contemporaries and family all inspired Florences writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Nov 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781426996009

Florence Morris Rose

FLORENCE MORRIS ROSE, 1891 – 1964, was a prolific correspondent, writing to four sons at war and three daughters at school and work. Her insights hold a cogent view of her times, sharing world-views, maxims, humorous and spiritual reflections. Her early education was in northern Arkansas at Yellville and at Big Flat. She attended Teachers’ Institute at Big Flat and taught school for two years in a country school before marrying a young farmer when they were both only nineteen. In 1915 a flood washed away their farm crop, and they moved with their daughter and son, ages three and one, to Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, becoming tenant farmers. Living in a crowded small four-room house on the outskirts of town was difficult for the family. After a brief period working in the oil fields, the father worked for whatever he could find, usually for little money. However, there was always music in the home, and everyone took advantage of the books available in the Okmulgee Public Library. The whole family had a part in planting, cultivating and harvesting their large garden. Some of the produce was sold or traded for needed articles and services; even music lessons were paid for with vegetables from the garden. While the children were young, Florence was ill much of the time. Confined to her bed, she wrote verses to entertain the children. She expressed thoughts about current happenings and civic problems, sending her ideas, sometimes in prose, sometimes in poetry, to the local newspapers. She was a suffragist, writing to support votes for women. All of those ideas she sent were published, but she did not receive any remuneration for them; nor did she expect any. When the Works Progress Administration offered classes in dramatic production and literature during the Depression, Florence and the younger children attended regularly. Her scores on vocabulary tests were very high. After the children were grown, in 1949-50, Florence took a correspondence course from the Bozenkill School of Creative Writing, with Clement Wood (author of many books, including a rhyming dictionary) as instructor in poetry. Mr. Wood gave her a great deal of encouragement and praised some of her work very highly. She was encouraged to send her poems to the Tulsa and Oklahoma City newspapers and to several magazines. Quite a few of her poems were published, but she was not usually paid unless she entered a contest and was lucky enough to win a prize. The few dollars she won really helped when times were hard. Edith, the middle child, lived to age 16 before succumbing to leukemia after many years’ battle. By 1935, they sold their small house, and then made a down payment on an eight room house a few blocks from the high school. It had four bedrooms upstairs for the children and one downstairs for the parents, so they were all very happy and pleased to have space enough later for grown children and grandchildren to visit. Florence and Willie Rose lived there until 1964, the year both of them died in April. All seven adult Rose children attended college. Engineering degrees were attained by Ward, Lynn and Lola May; finance claimed Oran, James and Nadine; while Irva majored in Music and Education. Florence and Willie Rose were proud of their brood.

Book preview

Contents

About the Author:

Mustard Seed

Flights from the Lowlands

One Simple Way

Two Petitions

Spring, Why Masquerade?

George Washington I

George Washington II

George Washington III

George Washington IV

Ageless Drama

Every Poet

A Logical Conclusion

Wild Geese

Nothing Unusual

Misfit

Patriarch Lover

A Woman Answers

The Old Creek Council House

Some Deepening Convictions

Time’s Custodian

Comradeship

Darwinism

Advice to a Young Poet

Fragile Bloom

Time Pieces

In the Discard

Sleepless Nights

Lindbergh Might Have Said It

Lincoln’s Due

Why Ma Ain’t Famous

Speaking of Insurance

Dickenson Might Say

Thomas Alva Edison

Lover’s Memory

A Girl’s Secret Musing at Fourteen

The Incorrigible

What Far Edens

Evening in the Cotton Fields

Brokenhearted

Hostage to a Return

As His Mother Sees Him

A Son of Sparta Speaks

Found Out

Answered

On Guard

The Coming of the Rain

Mother of Many

A Mother’s Prayer

Achievement

DEDICATION

To memories of the children of Willie and Florence Rose

Irva Rose Montijo

Oran C. Rose

Ward A. Rose

Lynn Rose

Edith Rose

Lola May Rose Testa

James Rose

Nadine Rose Frary Kimball

And to the memories of their grandchildren

Kathryn Montijo

Dale Frary

Oran Carl Rose, Jr.

Mary Ellen Rose Bishop

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Cover Art: A B-17 bomber, first flown in 1935, the year Florence Rose’s son, Ward Rose, printed an edition of this book of his mother’s poems. Ward would later co-pilot this model plane in Europe during World War II. Ward’s plane was shot down and he was in a