I came to the world during a spring drizzleMy family was middle-class and ChristianToiling young in missions became my chisel For social justice in my work of fictionThey called it an unladylike professionThe craft of moving picture composition Before that music was my one obsessionI was a pianist, organist and singerWhen I reached New York I made the progression The musical comedies made me lingerIn the company of dear Philips SmalleyHe became my husband, the perfect dinger Our work-love companionship was so jollyBeing hired at Gaumont was so life-changingOne short film every week was quite a folly With Madame and Monsieur Blaché mentoringI was remodeled to auteur filmmakerIt was a grand cinematic beginning Motherhood did not turn out to be my sectorThe loss of Phoebe made me focus on filmMy world became the screen and the projector Making pictures in the West Coast was less dimUniversal City chose me as its mayorMy stories were fruit of conscience not of whim Of progressive goals I became the conveyorBirth control, addiction, eugenics and moreI captured on film and was called soothsayer Structural complexity I would exploreThe first U.S. feature by a woman was mineLois Weber Productions had so much in store People would say I was ahead of my timeI enjoyed empowering female workmatesAfter the Twenties nothing was as before Ladies’ brains were ignored, their bodies were baitsThe wings they had creatively flapped were now clippedThe only sway was in their dresses and gaits My film about gender politics was rippedI had to abandon the Land of the FreeTo the Old Continent and Orient we tripped With Philips it was no longer meant to beI returned to the New World and was divorcedYet love had not at all given up on me My need for a new life was therefore reinforcedWith Captain Harry Gantz we set up a RanchAll that was left of my fortune he outsourced I tried to claim my cinematic revancheBut censorship smothered artistic freedomDefeat tumbled upon me like an avalanche I made one talkie, no spectator had comeI ultimately found delight in teachingMovies act as a kinetic museum I supplanted the black board with a screeningDespite this industry left me pennilessIt must not discourage female pioneering.