For Poem Purists

I've posted this on ChaseChat and MW, but thought I'd repost here so everyone could see.

The poem is sorta like a recipe, or an equation. You follow steps in order to produce a correct result.

Now, I'm not going to explain every step, as that would give away too much, but I'll tell you what I believe IT is, at least in a couple of sentences, because IT doesn't refer to the same thing throughout the poem.

If you look at all the contractions in the poem, you have:

It's
There'll
You've
I've
I'm

FF talks about leftovers that could fill a book that's yet unwritten. What fills a book? Letters fill a book. What letters can be considered leftovers? The ones omitted by apostrophes. Those are the "lost" letters. Just as Forrest shortened Edard from Edward to save time, we use apostrophes to shorten words in order to save time and space.

So let's look at the "leftover" letters:

It's = It is = I
There'll = There will = W I
You've = You have = H A
I've = I have = H A
I'm = I am = A

I W I H A H A A

That anagrams to H A W A I I with H A "leftover." Now you need to find what makes the H A complete.

Remember talk of the key word?

"...tight focus with a word that is key."

Forrest has said he was never good with commas and where they should go.

 So maybe we can read the phrase like this:

"...with a word, THAT, is key."

In "Forrest Gets Mail" from last night, Forrest answers a question with:

"The Rangers didn't like THAT, but I did, and I was the one doing IT..."

So, if we go back to the poem, we see:

"So why is IT THAT..."

THAT is HA surrounded by T's, and a clue to what belongs with the leftover HA.

H A W A I I H A   T T

Which anagrams to IT HIAWATHA.

IT = HIAWATHA.

This may be why he didn't include anagrams in the list of things that wouldn't get you closer to the treasure. And by doing what I've just done (me and no one else--this is my idea--mine alone--lol), you're not "messing" with the poem at all. You're not changing letters, or doing anything to the poem. You're simply following instructions.

There are places with references to Hiawatha in all four states, so I don't think I've given too much away. But I did give you part of the method of solving the poem. This should appeal to the so-called "poem purists."

By the way, I am not a poem purist, because the photos and drawings are important, as the MANY references to captions imply. One day soon I'll do a post just about captions and the many ways Forrest has told us they're important. I don't recall anyone else bringing attention to the captions, so maybe I'm the only one thinking about them. After I post my research, though, I think many more will be looking harder at them, too.

The chase is drawing to a conclusion, and good luck to everyone!