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Beginnings and Beyond
"Poetry won't sell," said local publishers when Carol Lynn Pearson and her husband, Gerald, presented them with the manuscript for Beginnings in 1968. So they published two thousand copies themselves, believing that they had their lifetime supply of wedding presents. Nearly four decades and 300,000 volumes later, Carol Lynn's poetry has been internationally acclaimed, reprinted by Ann Landers's newspaper column, A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and college literary textbooks such as Houghton Mifflin's Structure and An Introduction to Literature. But more important, her poems have carved themselves into the hearts of her loyal following, giving inspiration, smiles, tears, and always the exact thought needed for a particular talk, lesson, letter, or personal need. Familiar life situations become vividly meaningful through Carol Lynn's magic of insight and imagery— • One splendid, never-worn red dress in the otherwise drab wardrobe symbolizes a mother's deathbed regret at her self-abnegating life and her offspring's resultant selfishness . • An elderly farmer smugly contemplates the inherited land he has dramatically improved and then goes proudly home to the wife whose potential he has consistently stifled. • A woman experiencing her second wedding, now "an orchard in September, not a branch in May," says "I do" and knows "I can." Beginnings & Beyond offers Carol Lynn's most popular poems to still another generation to enjoy and treasure.
226 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
2 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Carol Lynn Pearson
91 books122 followersFrom http://www.clpearson.com/about_me.htm
In fourth grade, in Gusher, Utah, I won four dollars in a school district essay contest on “Why We Should Eat a Better Breakfast.” And yes, this morning I had a bowl of my own excellent granola, followed by a hike in the hills near my home in Walnut Creek, California.
In high school I began writing in earnest. I have now in my files a folder marked “Poetry, Very Bad,” and another, “Poetry, Not Quite So Bad.” Writing served a good purpose for that very dramatic, insecure adolescent. Also at that time I began to keep a diary, which I still maintain and which has been indescribably useful to me both as a writer and as a pilgrim on the earth.
After graduating from Brigham Young University with an MA in theatre, teaching for a year in Utah at Snow College, and traveling for a year, I taught part-time at BYU in the English department and was then hired by the motion picture studio on campus to write educational and religious screenplays.
While performing at the university as Mrs. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” I met and fell in love with Gerald Pearson, a shining, blond, enthusiastic young man, who fell in love with me and my poems.
“We’ve got to get them published,” he said on our honeymoon, and soon dragged me up to the big city, Salt Lake City, to see who would be first in line to publish them. “Poetry doesn’t sell,” insisted everyone we spoke to, and I, somewhat relieved, put publishing on the list of things to do posthumously.
But not Gerald. “Then I’ll publish them,” he said. Borrowing two thousand dollars, he created a company called “Trilogy Arts” and published two thousand copies of a book called Beginnings, a slim, hard-back volume with a white cover that featured a stunning illustration, “God in Embryo,” by our good friend Trevor Southey, now an internationally known artist. On the day in autumn of 1967 that Gerald delivered the books by truck to our little apartment in Provo, I was terrified. I really had wanted to do this posthumously.
Beginnings
Today
You came running
With a small specked egg
Warm in your hand.
You could barely understand,
I know,
As I told you of Beginnings–
Of egg and bird.
Told, too,
That years ago you began,
Smaller than sight.
And then,
As egg yearns for sky
And seed stretches to tree,
You became–
Like me.
Oh,
But there’s so much more.
You and I, child,
Have just begun.
Think:
Worlds from now
What might we be?–
We, who are seed
Of Deity.
We toted a package of books up to the BYU bookstore, and asked to see the book buyer. “Well,” she said, “nobody ever buys poetry, but since you’re a local person, let me take four on consignment.” As they came in packages of twenty, we persuaded her to take twenty--on consignment. Next day she called and asked, “Those books you brought up here. Do you have any more of them?”
I had anticipated that the two thousand books, now stacked in our little closet and under our bed and in my Daddy’s garage, would last us years and years as wedding presents. But immediately we ordered a second printing. Beginnings sold over 150,000 copies before we gave it to Doubleday and then to Bookcraft.
Beginnings was followed by other volumes of poetry: The Search, The Growing Season, A Widening View, I Can’t Stop Smiling, and Women I Have Known and Been. Most of the poems from the earlier books now appear in a compilation, Beginnings and Beyond. The poems have been widely reprinted in such places as Ann Landers’ column, the second volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and college textbooks such as Houghton Mifflin’s Structure and Meaning: an Introduction to Literature. That first little volume of verse, and my husband’s determination, laid the foundation for my entire career.
Another characteristic of my husband was to have a profound effect on both
In fourth grade, in Gusher, Utah, I won four dollars in a school district essay contest on “Why We Should Eat a Better Breakfast.” And yes, this morning I had a bowl of my own excellent granola, followed by a hike in the hills near my home in Walnut Creek, California.
In high school I began writing in earnest. I have now in my files a folder marked “Poetry, Very Bad,” and another, “Poetry, Not Quite So Bad.” Writing served a good purpose for that very dramatic, insecure adolescent. Also at that time I began to keep a diary, which I still maintain and which has been indescribably useful to me both as a writer and as a pilgrim on the earth.
After graduating from Brigham Young University with an MA in theatre, teaching for a year in Utah at Snow College, and traveling for a year, I taught part-time at BYU in the English department and was then hired by the motion picture studio on campus to write educational and religious screenplays.
While performing at the university as Mrs. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” I met and fell in love with Gerald Pearson, a shining, blond, enthusiastic young man, who fell in love with me and my poems.
“We’ve got to get them published,” he said on our honeymoon, and soon dragged me up to the big city, Salt Lake City, to see who would be first in line to publish them. “Poetry doesn’t sell,” insisted everyone we spoke to, and I, somewhat relieved, put publishing on the list of things to do posthumously.
But not Gerald. “Then I’ll publish them,” he said. Borrowing two thousand dollars, he created a company called “Trilogy Arts” and published two thousand copies of a book called Beginnings, a slim, hard-back volume with a white cover that featured a stunning illustration, “God in Embryo,” by our good friend Trevor Southey, now an internationally known artist. On the day in autumn of 1967 that Gerald delivered the books by truck to our little apartment in Provo, I was terrified. I really had wanted to do this posthumously.
Beginnings
Today
You came running
With a small specked egg
Warm in your hand.
You could barely understand,
I know,
As I told you of Beginnings–
Of egg and bird.
Told, too,
That years ago you began,
Smaller than sight.
And then,
As egg yearns for sky
And seed stretches to tree,
You became–
Like me.
Oh,
But there’s so much more.
You and I, child,
Have just begun.
Think:
Worlds from now
What might we be?–
We, who are seed
Of Deity.
We toted a package of books up to the BYU bookstore, and asked to see the book buyer. “Well,” she said, “nobody ever buys poetry, but since you’re a local person, let me take four on consignment.” As they came in packages of twenty, we persuaded her to take twenty--on consignment. Next day she called and asked, “Those books you brought up here. Do you have any more of them?”
I had anticipated that the two thousand books, now stacked in our little closet and under our bed and in my Daddy’s garage, would last us years and years as wedding presents. But immediately we ordered a second printing. Beginnings sold over 150,000 copies before we gave it to Doubleday and then to Bookcraft.
Beginnings was followed by other volumes of poetry: The Search, The Growing Season, A Widening View, I Can’t Stop Smiling, and Women I Have Known and Been. Most of the poems from the earlier books now appear in a compilation, Beginnings and Beyond. The poems have been widely reprinted in such places as Ann Landers’ column, the second volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and college textbooks such as Houghton Mifflin’s Structure and Meaning: an Introduction to Literature. That first little volume of verse, and my husband’s determination, laid the foundation for my entire career.
Another characteristic of my husband was to have a profound effect on both
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 23, 2012
Split
You felt safe
I know
In that little space
Laced with love.
Your cocoon
You called it
Warm
Warm.
I cried with you
When it split.
Oh, safe
Cannot compare with sky.
I like you so much better
As a butterfly.
This book has been my comfort for the past few months. From the moment I first read one of Carol Lynn Pearson's poems I fell madly in love. They speak straight to my soul. I keep this book right by my bed and whenever my heart needs a lift, I pull it out and read a few.
This is a beautiful book. I recommend it to everyone.
You felt safe
I know
In that little space
Laced with love.
Your cocoon
You called it
Warm
Warm.
I cried with you
When it split.
Oh, safe
Cannot compare with sky.
I like you so much better
As a butterfly.
This book has been my comfort for the past few months. From the moment I first read one of Carol Lynn Pearson's poems I fell madly in love. They speak straight to my soul. I keep this book right by my bed and whenever my heart needs a lift, I pull it out and read a few.
This is a beautiful book. I recommend it to everyone.
May 18, 2011
I don't think I have ever just sat down to read an entire book of poetry. A poem here and there of course but not the whole book. So, this was an interesting experience and I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it or not, but I gave it 5 stars!
As a little background, my mother in law bought me this book because she went to BYU with the author. I couldn't help but read it after hearing that!
I would liken it to a Chicken Soup kind of book, with each poem telling it's own little story. There were a few poems that I really, really LOVED and touched me very deeply. There were even a few that I didn't get, but that's okay.
As a little background, my mother in law bought me this book because she went to BYU with the author. I couldn't help but read it after hearing that!
I would liken it to a Chicken Soup kind of book, with each poem telling it's own little story. There were a few poems that I really, really LOVED and touched me very deeply. There were even a few that I didn't get, but that's okay.
September 15, 2008
I am a fan of many of Carol Lynn Pearson's writings. Not everything she writes resonates with me, but the pieces that do hit the mark so beautifully that her words stay with me. This is a wonderful collection of her poetry. For those who may not have read her poems, she writes in a very direct style that is refreshing after overblown poets. Sometimes this means it starts to feel "chicken soup for the soul"ish, which I don't like. But usually, it means that it strikes home with a simple power all its own. Highly recommended.
November 14, 2016
A lot of Carol Lynn Pearson's poetry is easily-accessible and easily-consumable. This makes some of her poetry trite, and she has the tendency to sum up the meaning of her poems at the end. However, some poems ("Creation Continued," "Double Wedding," "A and B," "Point of View") hit with such force that I weep. She meditates on LDS theology, and looks at doctrines in a way that brings hope, goodness, and a bit more understanding. This, I find, is what makes her poetry of such value. Meditative LDS members should spend time with her poetry.
June 12, 2008
I'm the last person to pick up poetry, however I find Carolyn Pearson a fascinating woman and got this after another goodreads friend recommended it. I can't even get meter to sound in my head for most poetry, unless it rhymes, but I loved the message of many of these poems, some made me teary, others made me reflective. If poetry can do that for me, that's saying something. I read it on a Sunday evening after the kids had gone to bed and I was just needed to chill. It was perfect.
July 19, 2018
So completely lovely. ❤️
September 18, 2018
Beginnings and Beyond is an easy read, i.e. one day. The poems are often short and carried a simple message that left me smiling.
This is the third book of Carol Lynn Pearson that I've read, and enjoyed it tremendously. Some of my favorite poems 'The Lesson' and 'Words' relate to experiences that many of us have had, e.g., if you are going to cuss,do so where only horses my hear.
This is the third book of Carol Lynn Pearson that I've read, and enjoyed it tremendously. Some of my favorite poems 'The Lesson' and 'Words' relate to experiences that many of us have had, e.g., if you are going to cuss,do so where only horses my hear.
October 4, 2022
Nothing beats Carol Lynn Pearson’s poetry. I adore her.
August 12, 2016
This is a nice little poetic primer on Mormon theology and cosmology. Most of the poems deal with the themes of preexistence, birth, death, and eternal life. I found a couple of the poems to be a little offensive (for example, she uses the word "fools" to describe scientists/atheists). However, even though this book of poetry wasn't my favorite, I am a big fan of Carol Lynn Pearson's later works, and especially admire all she has done for LGBT Mormons and their families.
May 27, 2008
This is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read. I'm not a huge poetry fan, but this book hits the nail on the head every time. Whenever I feel sad/mad/frustrated/in pain of some kind this book helps me feel my way out of the misery and back into myself.
August 25, 2008
My mother in law gave me this book after I had my first child. The poems were beautiful. Some really made you think about being a mom, and others were there to give you a good laugh. I love this book, and the comfort it gives to me as a mom.
November 13, 2007
I remember when this book came out in 1975. I had to have it. I still have it. It was the first poetry that I could relate to. My copy is well-read.
January 29, 2008
A wonderful collection of insightful and often thought provoking poems about life, death, God, and relationships.
Good enough to make me want to read one of the author's many novels as well.
Good enough to make me want to read one of the author's many novels as well.
May 22, 2009
Her poetry is inspiring.
November 16, 2010
A great anthology of Pearson's poetry. I will be returning to it again and again.
August 30, 2011
This is a great book of poetry. Remember the poems "Day old Child" or "Trial number 5" or "Millie's Mother's Red Dress"? They are all in this collection.
May 18, 2016
Now this one was amazing, the poems have more variety and depth, great anthology. Several poems I will remember deeply.
February 1, 2011
this book of LDS poetry was written for LDS mothers' hearts. Beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews