Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge.
Reena has chosen two lines from an essay on
Shakespeare by James Baldwin and asks us to
respond in a poem or story, including one or both
lines. My line is: “That is why he is called a poet”.
Hemingway. Papa.
He’d hate this poem.
Too many words already.
He’d cross out “already”.
He’d cross out “too”.
He’d order another daiquiri, no sugar,
and tell me the fish was bigger than it was.
Fine.
Here’s one true thing:
I read him at nineteen
and started ending sentences sooner.
He taught me the word “and“
could do the work of a symphony.
That rain could be just rain
until the last page,
when it wasn’t.
That a man and a woman
talking about the hills
could be talking about everything else.
He stood at a typewriter on the bookshelf,
barefoot, no shirt,
writing standing up,
and stopped each day
while he still knew what came next.
He left out the wound
and let us find the blood.
He left out the tears
and we cried anyway.
They file him under fiction.
But every line of his breaks
where the breath breaks.
That is why he is called a poet.
It was very good.
And the cats with six toes
still sleep on the porch,
dreaming of something
e could never understand,
which, he would have said,
was exactly the point.
NAR©2026
This is “Havana Daydreamin’ – Hemingway Tribute” by Jimmy Buffett
Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated, and may not be used without permission. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.
It’s a very interesting poem: it plays with Hemingway and his writing style, but at the same time, it ends up being a small tribute to his way of seeing and telling stories. I especially liked the idea of saying so much with so few words. And the ending with the six-toed cats adds a very human and endearing touch.
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