Flights from the Lowlands

BOOKREVIEW.COM has rated this book EXCELLENT! An extraordinary woman’s 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 Rose’s 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 Florence’s writing. Flights from the Lowlands
by Florence Rose
Trafford Publishing
reviewed by Mihir Shah, U.S. Review of Books


"The storm of life may bend me, may twist me from all semblance. But oh, loving mother, I shall not break beneath their violence."

Flights from the Lowlands, Florence Rose's updated collection of poetry, revolves around various topics, including, but not limited to, the struggles of the Great Depression, heroism, the American Revolution, the beauty of nature, the sometimes excruciating writing process, and the take-off of the flight industry. Well-educated and versed in all areas of life, Rose's vision for the world led her to use writing as a woman suffrage platform. As readers' navigate through the anthology, he or she will catch a glimpse of who Rose was and the principles for which she fought. Flights from the Lowlands is written with grace and a keen attention to detail on many different topics, thus appealing to multiple crowds. The title poem is representative of a time that involves the inception of the commercial flight industry. Rose captures the excitement and fear of treading a "path into the skies." Perhaps the most thought-provoking and insightful poem of the bunch is "One Simple Way," which points out that rich or poor, prince or pauper, both enter and leave the world in the same manner. Florence Rose, for much of her children's youth, battled an illness and passed time confined to her bed. The poem, "Two Petitions," is her plea to the Lord to care for her children. Other intriguing poems include, but are not limited to, "Ageless Drama," "A Logical Conclusion," "Misfit," "Some Deepening Conclusions," and "Comradeship." Overall, Flights from the Lowlands is imbued with an extraordinary collection of poetry that enlightens and evokes emotion on a number of pertinent topics of the time. This is a window to Florence Rose's essence—her life as a whole.

Title:Flights from the Lowlands
Author: Florence Rose
Rating:Excellent!
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Web Page: www.trafford.com
Publisher's E-mail: casadeliberty@lycos.com
Reviewed by: M.K.Turner, BookReview.com

"Flights from the Lowlands," a charming collection of verse by the poet Florence Rose, was first published in 1935 -- which was a good year for poetry if not much else. Audrey Wurdemann became the youngest person to win the Pulitzer prize in that category (it probably didn't hurt that she was Shelley's great-great-granddaughter) and Flights from the Lowlands had its first limited edition. "Mustard Seed," the opening poem in the collection, had been previously published by the Tulsa World. It begins: "Well, if I write and no one reads, what then?"

But Americans did read poems in 1935. They read them in the sophisticated pages of The New Yorker and in abstruse little magazines where nothing rhymed or had capital letters and often seemed to wander all over the page. Others read them on their prayer cards or in magazines like American Trails or in their daily newspapers where even the bunion-cure ads sometimes rhymed.

Florence Rose wrote for this latter group, and must have been gratified to be frequently published. She wrote about tending her many children while living in a four-room house in eastern Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl days, and women clipped out those little verses and tucked them into their cookbooks or bibles. She wrote sonnets about George Washington and won second prize in a D.A.R. sponsored contest (alas, the magazine that was to publish them folded). She wrote that she, too, would have liked to win a Pulitzer, but never got the time. And she had a wry way about her -- as in her poem "Darwinism": "Even cactus thorns evolved. Thus are all life's riddles solved!" Bookreview.com rates this fine little book excellent.