Denver Branch member Elizabeth “Beth” Crawford Joines passed away in 2013. a month before her 102nd birthday. She was a prolific author of both poetry and prose, who contributed to multiple magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping. Into her nineties, she attended Pen Women meetings, joyously sharing her hugs and ready wit. In her nineties, Beth also presented poetry workshops for The Poetry Society of Colorado.
The Joines Family has now compiled a sizable collection of Beth’s poetry entitled A Lifetime of Poetry, available for $25 through the Joines Family Trust. Contact lauriewolfe@comcast.net or aeklaiman@aol.com for details about the book. In 2001, Beth wrote:
Now is a Latchstring
There is
no going back.
The tree
can never be
a sapling,
pliant,
bending to the wind–
no more than ash may
turn to flame–
and who would have it so?
Remembering
is touching
fragile cloth with fingertips.
Now is a latchstring
of tomorrow
to hold, to lift
with confidence.
Beth Joines, July 30, 1911 – June 18, 2013. She loved knowledge of the simple and everyday, as well as the great complexity of all humankind.