Edward Collins Downing Moccasin Minnesota Poetry League 1945

The Moccasin: Volume 9, Number 1. Summer, 1945

This blogpost article by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.

Edward Collins Downing was featured as Honored Poet in The Moccasin, Volume 9, Number 1, Summer, 1945, a publication of The League of Minnesota Poets, Nan Fitz-Patrick, editor.  Along with Downing's poetry there are poems of League members, most of which reflect their thoughts and sentiments about World War II.

In the Moccasin News section inside the back cover is the following regarding Dr. Edward Collins Downing: "...has been chosen as Honor Poet for this issue, in accordance with the new policy of the Moccasin.  His generous patronage of our publication has made it possible for us to publish four extra pages in this issue.

"Dr. Downing has been writing poetry since his boyhood; his first poem was published in the Indianapolis Journal, in 1885, when James Whitcomb Riley was poetry editor. Recently Dr. Downing sold a first edition of Riley's poems to a New York Collector for $100."

Poetry is both a reflection of the author's thoughts and what touches the reader in a particular way. I felt two poems in particular in this issue expressed haunting intimacy with the gruesome nature of war.

The Moccasin
Published quarterly by The League of Minnesota Poets
Summer, 1945 issue. Nan Fitz-Patrick, editor.

One Summer

Margaret Deutsch, Duluth

One summer--make it soon, dear God--

When scarlet roses bud,

The world will smile to gaze at them

And never think of blood.

A dew-kissed blossom, quivering

In early morning air,

Will never bring a painful thought,

A quickly whispered prayer.

One summer there will be no war

When scarlet roses bud;

The world will see their beauty then

And never think of blood.

At Maidanek Poland

Harriet Knight Salvage, St. Paul

Here stand the ovens:

Never did history find

Anything so heinous--

Produced of the German mind.

Here the gas chambers

Where over a million died,

Here their graying ashes--

The silence of trees that cried.

League of Minnesota Poets Member Contributors to This Issue: Edith Thompson (Houston), Nina Pride Hoag (Minneapolis), Valerie Simmonds (Sauk Centre), Florence Kreeger Hunting (St. Paul), Nan M. Clark (Minneapolis), Anne Franey Schumacher (Minneapolis), 

Ada Clarke Carmichiel (Minneapolis), Harriet Knight Salvage (St. Paul), Hazel King Tjepkes (Stewartville), Margaret H. Stevens, Margaret Deutsch (Duluth), Laura Holt (Minneapolis), Emma Kinney Whaley (St. Paul), Doris Anderson (Canton), Marjorie Gillespie (Rochester), 

Edward Collins Downing: born 24 February 1862 in Wooster, Ohio, died 18 September 1948 in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota. Census records show Downing residing in St. Paul, Minnesota, at least from 1910, when his occupation was college professor (Macalester College: Latin Language and Literature), to his death. Edward and wife Mary are shown as having at least one child named Margaret.

LINK to article about Edward Collins Downing in The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review: A Quarterly Review. Volume 4. Buffalo NY: Charles Wells Moulton, 1892.

In the summer 1945 issue of the moccasin Dr. Collins' poems cover a wide range of subjects. I found most to be conversational, perceptive, and reflective of inner thoughts regarding a person's relationship with the world.

Here are two examples:

A Narrow Inn

The heart is but a narrow inn

With room for but one mate,

With room for love and love alone,

Not selfishness nor hate.

One guest that would not go away,

One guest with whom to dine,

With whom to share life's holy bread

And sacramental wine.

A Woman's Kiss

A woman's kiss is a woman's heart

That is poured to her lips like wine,

A gift that is part of her life,

As wine is the fruit of the vine.

A woman's kiss is a precious thing,

Like the myrrh and spices of old,

A thing to love and treasure away

In a memory box of gold.

Works by Edward Collins Downing
1888  Minutes with the Muses. Republican Press
1918  Thomas Shaw: Tribute to a Man (Thomas Shaw, Professor of Agriculture), 1843-1918)

1925 The Endless Dawn: Eighty-Five 1885-1925
1931  Goals
1931  The Saving Ideal
1936  God's Poetry (St. Paul: League of Minnesota Poets)

1938  The Poet
1941  The Villanelle (St. Paul MN: Pierce Co.)
1945 Meet Tom Cooney (pioneer in the area of Afton, Minnesota) by Mildred Houghton Comfort, verses by Edward C. Downing

1946  Stairways of the Years
1946  Productive Poetry

Downing's works are out of print as expected. Most were published in saddle-stitched, pamphlet format in limited number.  Few are available anywhere for purchase, and I believe collectible as part of Minnesota's literary history.