Yes, Virginia, there was a Verna Lee Hinegardner

by Pat Laster

 

                She was Arkansas's Poet Laureate for many years. She lived in Hot Springs, Arkansas a long time before she had to move closer to her daughter in Conway. As she aged, she needed more help than her daughter and son-in-law could give--they were OTR truck drivers--so she moved to a nursing facility.

                After we heard she'd died, we waited and waited for an obituary, but one never appeared in the state paper. Then we heard from another poet in Conway who talked with her nephew that she wanted no obit, no services, nothing except cremation. A poet who knew her well said, “It’s as though she never lived.”

                But another poet had the forethought to check online all the funeral homes in Conway. Sure enough, he found a long obit and a nice picture. You can find it at www.rollerfuneralhomes.com. (Conway AR) I’d advise you to print or save a copy to your desktop or documents.

                After I heard of her death, Virginia, I found the three poetry books of hers, and as I sat at the computer, I read through all one-hundred-twelve of her poems in The Music Grows Louder, published in 1983 when she was 64.  They were numbered with Roman numerals, not titles.

                This book was dedicated to “Litchfield (Illinois) Community High School, Class of 1936”—that’s the year I was born, Virginia—and to 6 other entities, one of whom was: “to those who might enjoy a nostalgic glance at farm life in depression days.” That was me.

                She was a Linxwiler by birth, with older and younger siblings, and in one of her poems she expressed the hope that when she married, she would have a simple name. Not to be; she married “Pete” Hinegardner. Can’t you just see the wedding announcement: “Hinegardner – Linxwiler”?

                A great gift of Verna Lee’s is her autograph on my copy of her latest book, Mosaic,  published in 2011 when she was 92. In wobbly script, she wrote “For Pat Laster/ my poet-friend,/ Verna Lee Hinegardner.” I read this volume that summer in Florida and wrote several poems that were inspired by hers.

                Keep your eyes open, Virginia, for her poetry books in flea markets and used-book library sales. Look for these titles: Magic Moments, The Ageless Heart, Mud and Music, One Green Leaf, Seven Ages of Golf (For Women), Life is a Poem, My Ships Will Sail, Christmas is a Medley, Hearts of the South, People Poetry, and I Own One Star, along with the other two I’ve mentioned.

                Verna Lee invented the “Minute” poetry pattern. It has 60 syllables in particular line lengths and rhyme schemes. She told of asking her husband what she should name it, and after describing it to him, he reportedly said, “Why not call it a minute?”

                Here is one of her Minutes, number XXIX from The Music Grows Louder. [I could not get the formatting correct in this post. Slashes mean a new line.]

"This year it was my turn to pray/ Thanksgiving Day. /Each head was bowed. /I felt so proud/
that all my relatives were near /--all home—all here/
so proud that I /began to cry'
and could not speak my gratitude /for love and food./
I stuttered then, /‘Thanks, God. Amen.’”

                And I add, “Thanks, God, for Verna Lee’s life. May we never forget her, even though at times she was hard to love, according to some who knew her well. None of your children deserves to leave this world without some mention of her and her contribution to your creation. Amen.”

c 2012 by Pat Laster dba lovepat press