Jamie Harris Coleman

“ Baring the hearts of men,
Poetry!
Poetry is the setting free of “the deep soul of things” and the calling things by their “true names” so that men may know them. It is the imaginative expression of spiritual truth. It is thought, passion, life expressed in images.
With this forecast I subjoin a brief history of the writer of these lines in this little booklet and ask your considerate perusal.
Jamie Harris was born September 20, 1893, in Mayfield, Ky. ”

“ A well spent life is worth living,
It’s far better when it reaches its end;
Than a life that is spent in idleness,
And has tried no victories to win.
Each man for his own life is responsible,
It’s his duty to do all he can ”

“ The definition was restricted to thirty-five words, and must be in poetry. The judges were Florence Wilkinson, Edith Wynne Matthison, Ridgley Torrence, Robert Frost, Edwin Markham and George E. Woodberry.
Definitions of poetry came from every State in the Union, and also from London, Canada, Hawaii and Bermuda. The prize went to Miss Laney, a Pawtucket (R. I.) school girl, who sent the following:
The magic light that springs
From the deep soul of things
When, called by their true names,
Their essence is set free ”

“ From a child of nine years she showed that she was poetically inclined but she did not attempt to cultivate this taste until 1912. Since that time she has written a large number of poems and one play, dramatized from the book of “Ruth” and known as “Ruth the Gleaner,” which was played in sixteen Louisville churches. Her first recital of her poems was in Calvary Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., October, 1913. Since that time she has occasionally traveled, giving recitals of her own poems and it is to be hoped that in the future a larger number may be given to the public. ”