The Myth of Being

By Elizabeth Clayton

While The Myth of Being is a gentle recording of the authors earliest impressions and memories transcribed when she was a young adult, these verses, from the period of three or four years of age until her second marriage and especially difficult struggle with bipolar illness (1970s), an aside might be added; at a level beyond effective description and playful illustrations, which do reveal the activity of beautiful memory, one can find very early, deep pondering of the meaning of our existencebeingits beauty to hold briefly, but ultimately for the author, coming dark.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: May 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490737096

Elizabeth Clayton

Elizabeth Clayton is a retired college and university professor in fields of Psychology and Literature. Since retirement, she has written almost daily and has produced twenty-three works, primarily poetry. She has received numerous commendations including membership in Sigma Kappa Delta, nominations for the Eric Hoffer award, and representation at numerous world book fairs. In addition, she has received several U S Review recommendations. She has also received several Golden Seal of Excellence Awards by her publisher. Her first work was I, Elizabeth which dealt with her struggles with Bipolar illness and her most recent work was published in early 2019, a review in poetry of the fable/myth of the White Hart. Other outstanding titles are Scarlet Flow, Quiet Sheba (a trilogy), We Lesser Gods, and Addendum, and The Kept Ecclesia of Agatha Moi. She lives alone in her country home near Jackson, Mississippi. In 2018 a large volume of poetry was published, The Kept Eclessia of Agatha Moi, and her most recent work, a review of the myth\fable of the white hart, Jason’s Pause, was published in early 2019.

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Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Clayton.

Cover and illustrations by Elizabeth Clayton, assisted throughout by Tonia Germany

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN:   978-1-4907-3712-6 (sc)

             978-1-4907-3709-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909350

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Trafford rev. 05/30/2014

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Contents

Stemmed Day

First Season

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Preface To The Myth of Being

First Voice

Note

First Memory

Excerpt from I, Elizabeth

Early Royalty

Winter

Cakewalk

Certainty

Play

Brought Back

Brothers

Miss Beulah’s in Summer

Miss Beulah’s in Summer

March Prayer, 2001

Part Song

Reaching Into

A Dream and Some Embroidery

Dancer

Excerpts from Homefires

Sweet Oblivion

The Struggle

Decision

Gravest Struggle

January 2, 1969

The Seduction Effacate

The Singer

My First Haiku

Return

Old House Places

Old House places

Today’s Treasures

The Splash of Red

The Matter of Goldenrod

Part-song

The Promise That Became Silent

Summertime Wind

Geraniums

Mirrors

My First Morning-glory

The Wall

Again

Summerlude

Morning time

Our Now

Reunons Nous

Tribute

Fall time

Passing Seasons

And Still the Moment, Seasonal Portions

Conclusion

Comment

My Firelighter

Giving Strength

Other works by Elizabeth Clayton

Stemmed Day

Within the salutation of morning,

A day, and beautiful, upon a stem,

Its petal colors bright,

Shaped to the pattern most pleasing, softly round:

About it hangs the fragrance of widest,

Bluest sky,

And inside its center, intense joy,

So that I stood with Moses,

And could not look into its fullest fire;

Passing were other blossoms,

Dreams that flew away into unimportant musings.

How beautiful, this day upon a stem;

Let my instrument of gathering be strong and powerful,

And my the forgiven flower’s life move in eager folds,

In majesty suiting the chosen,

The blood of the seed,

Down to the earth,

Before its quieted splendor:

In my hand the day,

Its beauty and generosity above all,

And first, of all else,

That can be given.

A verse written some ten years ago, but metaphor, true, to this record (day) of my thoughts into verse at their beginning until today The Myth of Being

First Season

In the matter of being rests its premier portion,

That of becoming;

And we must to know the beauty of this recognition.

In place, then, lies the past, vestiges of various tenses:

Of then and now, of soon and late,

The entire repertoire of yesterday and memory.

Beside is found the future, its expectations and firstness,

Energy, closeted, the mystical, the clouded worlds

Of dreams and visions.

But most, we find the moment – our present:

Revisiting –