I
Bethlehem

star rising to biblical acclaim
fit to shine on wisest of kings
and the king of kings.

Polaris

brightest beacon in the black
  of northern night
compass before maps were drawn
Columbus saw the importance.

Crux

Constellation in a jewel box
and shape of Christ's last remembrance
two by two
hoorah hoorah
the four criss-cross. 

Helios
As a lark the lonely sun descends
dipping into the night never to see
his nocturnal bright shining starry friends
yet illuminates far beyond that flickering sea. 

Under springtime rays seedlings burst into life
as flowers bloom radiant under his light
rising each day to a chorus of bird song
the sun in fertile solitude shines brightest.

  II
Portrait of a Young Writer
Asking for the Directions to the Heming-way

I conclude the nights writing
when I will have enough room
to roam in the same hall
where my thoughts danced before.

The music doesn't stop,
as all the words
still dressed in nightgowns
don't want the ball to end just yet.

Insomnia by masquerade
as my attempts of inducing a sleep
are restrained by the creative parade
my intent is good and well
an effort equivalent to leaving the party early
ensuring a morning without hangover.
Free of any hindering lethargic power over me -
the same way I try to keep my mind alive
with the full-bodied potency.

Scouts Seek Talented Writers.
        Apply Within The Morgue

Yardstick six feet below
the Baltimore snow covered sand
until it pokes Poe in his dead
right hand.
 
Fifty arms rewritten
on the conveyor belt of daft draft revision
leading to realization of a vision
// non-practicing writers waste oxygen //

  III
  Follow the French Feast
Ingredients:
- blue-backed notebooks
- pencils x 2
- pencil sharpener
- tables (marble topped)

Actions: 
- follow the past recipe
& experiences straight with truth
- breathe in the morning scullery
- sweeping & mopping

Pro Chef Tip:
- carry horse chestnut
& rabbit’s foot in your right pocket.
- exercise pen-less
then rest
reading & observing paintings for inspiration. 

Sommelier Suggests:
- pair work with soft drinking
- cups runneth over after the full-stop halts the paper
- ignore sweet wines and polished rhymes.

  IV
Great Scott!

Pin the script on the genre
and make it stick.

Spaceships don't fit
in a Norwegian doll house

Godot never arrives through a gate
                  waltzing in fashionably late 
crashing through the fourth wall
for inventions have limitations after-all.

turn off
        tune in
              drop the act.

Review: Masterpiece!
nothing but trashcan from way down town
  nine point nine shots out of ten
the Bo-show separates the boys
from the men without deflating balls.

Stick to the guns of truth
denying sobbing victim-hood
greedy for more, more, more
to persuade or intrude
on your gift of acrobatic
organic writing.
Balance the swing with hearing aids
listening as far and wide 
as the spectacles of Doctor Eckleburg
see the fall of drunken pride.

Go on and write.
Ernest

Notes

Inspired by various sources of Hemingway giving advice on writing.
1 -  “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.”
Hemingway's Nobel acceptance speech.
2 - 22-year-old Arnold Samuelson in conversation with Hemingway, talking about writing.
3 - From 'A Moveable Feast'
Hemingway's memoir about his work as a journalist in Paris.
4 - Hemingway's letter to Fitzgerald.

 (this is a work written in my method of the modernism. some of the interpretations are deliberately open ended, with some focus on feeling. this is not in great detail or neatly arranged - however these might help if anyone is interested):

the title: the shotgun alludes to the method of his passing. he shot himself with a shotgun.
and the roses, first, Hemingway is the name of a hybrid rose. and secondly refers to a well-known book on Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises: A Wine and Roses Perspective of the Lost Generation), which is what this poem is. a literary work on Hemingway.
thought behind the title was the juxtaposition. the masculine nature of the gun to the roses is a representation of his public image and reputation in a artistic discipline known for it's romanticism.

1 / Noble Speech: Hemingway talks about the writers lonely existence, touching on the effect of growing fame / notoriety that comes with genius and how the standard of work deteriorates with it.
Bethlehem, Polaris (North Star), Southern Cross are all stars and constellations used for navigation and divine heavenly bodies in their own light.
Helios is the sun, which shine alone during the day (solitude) however is the most important source of life - as is creation in art.

2 / Hemingway's conversation with the fan has been transcribed many times.
He provides insight into his own creative process.
* he never empties himself, or writes until every thought is spent. the next day he knows the direction and the following sequence of events. also with a reference to his sleeping patterns and alcohol consumption.
** when asked how to identify talent or how to know whether one is a talented writes he mentions measuring your work against dead writers who are universally accepted as genius.
*** he goes on to give the admirer a word of encouragement, stating the there is at times a mechanical, repetitive nature to it - in editing etc. and mentions the fact that 'a farewell to arms' was rewritten 50 times.
**** he proceeds to say that someone who calls themselves a writer and doesn't write - is not one. and that artists have to push through those periods.

3 / Follow the French Feast
much of this is directly taken from A Moveable Feast, which chronicles his idea of what is needed to write. it's direct yet written in a 'recipe' format. notable lines from other sources are included and adapted.
"'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now
All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know"

4 / Great Scott
Fitzgerald wrote to Hemingway asking what he thought of his new book (tender is the night).
Hemingway's response is the foundation for this.
* relating to genre and characters, he mentions that he shouldn't mix 'invention' and 'genuine'.
* a doll's house is a famous Norwegian realism play, incorporating the fourth wall.
** waiting for godot is a dadaist play by Samuel Beckett.

*** turn on, tune in, drop out - a book by timothy.
"Like every great religion, we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present—turn on, tune in, drop out"
the allusion used here is to the statement by Hemingway that Fitzgerald 'doesn't listen anymore'
& he concerns himself with the opinion of the 'boys' - (drop the act)

**** other quotes adapted from the letter:
his concern relating to Scott's drunkenness
Doctor Eckleburg - Great Gatsby
"forget your personal tragedy."
" I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket."
"We are like lousy damned acrobats but we make some mighty fine jumps, bo, and they have all these other acrobats that won’t jump."
"Scott, good writers always come back. Always. You are twice as good now as you were at the time you think you were so marvellous. You can write twice as well now as you ever could. All you need to do is write truly and not care about what the fate of it is.
Go on and write."