This is my Grandmother, the great poet Rachel Zeller Nelson Collins. Most of her poetry can be found in her published anthology entitled: When I Was Very Young, Verses By Rachel. Astoundingly, most of these poems were written when she was VERY young. (Between the ages of 9 - 24) Here's a passage taken from the book's jacket cover:

When Rachel Collins was a girl in her teens she was a prolific writer. The poems she wrote were about subjects of universal interest and concern to young people. She wrote about war:

She comes not with loud challenge or steps of martial stride; She comes with stately sneering and quiet, deathly glide. Her face is rouged with lifeblood and white with cannon dust, Her eyebrows arched with horror of carnage and of lust.

and about abrupt moods:

I sit and dream; the darkness falls. The coldness lingers in these halls. All, all is cold and still and white. The dusk sweeps onward into night.

and about nature:

Up from the glaciers and over the frozen sea The winds of the north are answering in icy ecstasy.

and about the dreams and yearnings of verities of life:

And where is the path that is level and white With never a shadow to darken its light? And tell me the flower ne'er withered to die, The dream of the future bereft of a sigh, A life never darkened by shadows of lust, A dream never fallen to lie in the dust,

The poems of this talented and perceptive young girl have stood the test of time, and fifty years after they were written, the reader will find them relevant and provocative.

Mrs. Collins was awarded the Brown Poetry Prize two consecutive years at the University of Mississippi. An earlier recipient was William Faulkner, whose work appears, along with Mrs. Collins', (Under the name Rachel Zeller) in Mississippi Verse published by North Carolina Press in 1934.

***

My grandmother's poetry was only one facet of a truly remarkable life. A woman far ahead of her time, she nearly went on to finish a masters degree. Life, however necessitated that she support her young family after my grandfather's death. That event ensured that her plans for furthering her education were curtailed.

Her passing has left a profound void in my life. I only hope that she knew just how very much I truly love and appreciate her. I thank God everyday for having had such a person in my life, a person who believed in me and gave me the encouragement to pursue my interests.

Rachel Collins was a woman of great character and grace as evidenced by her surviving sister, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and friends who deeply love and miss her.

I leave you with two more of her powerful poems. The Deer and on the next page in keeping with the theme of this Web site, The Phantom Courtship.

The Cry Of The Deer

I live but to die. What is death but a sleeping A quieted soul in the infinte's keeping, Which wakens to life In the shades of tomorrow And sheds from it's shoulders The mantle of sorrow.
To the woods, then, begone With the song of life's living, A prey to its dangers, A child of its giving, With the leaves of the forest By clear breezes shaken, And moon-caressed pools By the daylight forsaken.
***
First Prize, Mississipi State Fair, probably 1923.

Copyright © 1978 by Rachel Zeller Nelson Collins

All Rights Reserved from: When I was Very Young Dorrance & Company
The Phantom Courtship