IT TAKES PRACTICE NOT TO DIE

Elizabeth Bartlett

It Takes Practice Not to Die was originally published in 1964 by Van Riper and Thompson in Santa Barbara, California. The book is now out-of-print and the publisher no longer exists. The author's literary executor, Steven James Bartlett, has decided to make the book available as an open access publication, freely available to readers through Project Gutenberg under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs license, which allows anyone to distribute this work without changes to its content, provided that both the author and the original URL from which this work was obtained are mentioned, that the contents of this work are not used for commercial purposes or profit, and that this work will not be used without the copyright holder's written permission in derivative works (i.e., you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without such permission). The full legal statement of this license may be found at:

[ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode ]

IT TAKES PRACTICE NOT TO DIE

IT
TAKES
PRACTICE
NOT TO
DIE

BY

ELIZABETH
BARTLETT

VAN RIPER & THOMPSON, INC.
SANTA BARBARA 1964

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Some of these poems appeared in the following anthologies: The American Scene, The Golden Year, New Poems By American Poets II, New Voices 2.

Thanks are also due to the Beloit Poetry Journal, Chelsea Review, Commentary, The Critic, Dalhousie Review, ETC., Fiddlehead, Harper's, Harper's Bazaar, Literary Review, New Mexico Quarterly, New York Times, Odyssey, Poetry Dial, Queen's Quarterly, Quixote, San Francisco Review, Saturday Review, Tamarack Review, Yale Literary Magazine.

Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 64-22731

Copyright 1964 by Elizabeth Bartlett
First Edition

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form, except for review purposes.

Printed in the United States of America

TO
PAUL AND STEVEN

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

Poems of Yes and No
Behold This Dreamer
Poetry Concerto

CONTENTS

[ HOMO ELASTICUS ]

[ BALANCE ]

[ SIMPLE WITH COMPASS ]

[ ACHILLES HAD HIS HEEL ]

[ ASCETIC ]

[ I WOULD REMEMBER ]

[ AFTER THE STORM ]

[ THE CAGE ]

[ MENTAL HOEING ]

[ HUNGER ]

[ VOLUNTARY EXILE ]

[ THE FOURTH CATEGORY ]

[ THE CHANGING WIND ]

[ JINXED ]

[ ALONG THAT ROAD ]

[ THE REFUGEES ]

[ SHIP OF EARTH ]

[ AMONG THE PASSENGERS ]

[ (1 x 1)n ]

[ AIR BRIDGE ]

[ AS YOU MAKE IT ]

[ CITY GAME: MARBLES ]

[ FREE-FALL ]

[ Existence=multiple conditions2 ]

[ THE UNDERSTANDING ]

[ WOOLEN DIGNITY ]

[ THE COAT ]

[ ON A ROCK OF ATLANTIS ]

[ EVEN IF WE DID ]

[ SELF-EVIDENT ]

[ THE SACRAMENT ]

[ PROLOGUE TO OLD AGE ]

[ ALL THIS, BEFORE ]

[ THE EARTH AGE ]

[ NEGATIVE ABSOLUTE ]

[ TIME WILL TELL ]

[ THE TEST ]

[ DIARY ]

[ ITEM: BODY FOUND ]

[ LANDSCAPE: WITH BREAD ]

[ O TO BE AN OSTRICH ]

[ THE BARREN FIG TREE ]

[ THE SOWER ]

[ INTERVIEW ]

[ THIS SIDE THE FOG ]

[ CIVILIZED SPRING ]

[ REPLY TO CRITICS ]

[ INSOMNIA IN THE CITY ]

[ WHEN YESTERDAY COMES ]

[ FULL CIRCLE ]

[ CONVERT ]

[ NOT JUST ONCE ]

[ NOTES FOR THE FUTURE ]

[ THE SLEEPWALKERS ]

[ MEXICAN PROFILE ]

[ DRY SANCTUARY ]

[ RETURN TRIP ]

[ THE CAVE ]

[ DARK ANGEL ]

[ FUGITIVE ]

[ THE TRAP ]

[ THE RUIN OF THAT HOUSE ]

[ THEIR FIRST HUNT ]

[ WOLF! ]

[ FINAL PERFORMANCE ]

[ HOUSE OF THE POET ]

[ THE GHOST OF ANNE FRANK ]

[ THE MISTAKE ]

[ REFLECTED IN BRASS ]

[ MODERN PRIMITIVE ]

[ PERSONAL HISTORY ]

[ I THINK I AM ]

[ INSTINCT AND REASON ]

[ THE SUMMING UP ]

[ THERE WILL BE TIME FOR MOSS ]

[ PERSPECTIVE ]

[ THE QUESTION IS PROOF ]

[ UNDER A THATCHED ROOF ]

[ CONDITIONAL REFLEX ]

[ THE DARK CENTAUR ]

[ WORLD OF TOMORROW ]