As Imperceptibly as Grief

As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away—
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy—
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon—
The Dusk drew earlier in—
The Morning foreign shone—
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone—
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
~Emily Dickinson, As Imperceptibly as Grief

A Letter Always Feels To Me...

"A letter always feels to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend."


~Emily Dickinson, in a letter to a friend

XOXO,

The Soul Selects her own Society

In honor of my wonderful friends whom I adore:

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone.

~Emily Dickinson

I'm nobody! Who are you?

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us-- don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

~Emily Dickinson

Libraries and nerd-ery

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is a chariot

That bears a human soul!

~ Emily Dickinson, Part One: Life XCIX

I am, without a doubt, the biggest nerd I know.  How else to describe someone who gets as much joy out of a library as I do.  When I moved out of Brooklyn in late February, it was with great sadness that I bid my local library (The Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch) goodbye.  I was not ready to let it go, and on subsequent visits to the city, I've stopped by and checked more books and DVDs out.  I'm thankful for their online renewal service, and for my friend, Corrie, who has graciously volunteered to return my books for me if I mail them to her.

Having my nearest "local" library some three hours drive away was not ideal or practical for a self-avowed book lover such myself.  I was under the impression that I was banned from the New Castle County Public Library system because of a $100 fine that I somehow accrued  almost fifteen years ago.  I finally decided a few weeks ago that I would just pay the fine, but when I went in to talk to them, my fine had mysteriously disappeared, and I emerged from the library the triumphant owner of a bright yellow piece of plastic entitling me to borrow from any of the local libraries.  Yippee!

After my physical therapy session today (working on my knees), I drove to the nearest branch, and somehow managed a half hour later to have accumulated an armful of books on topics ranging from Eleanor of Aquitaine and Lady Jane Grey, to fashions of the 1940's, to sex and chastity.  What joy I had perusing those shelves; what regret in deciding to leave some books behind!  I didn't want to be too overzealous-- after all, I do only have them for three weeks at a time.

Perhaps I shall share some thoughts on my reading in future posts.  In the meanwhile though, I have a lot of reading to do!

Spring! (or why I love my camera)

How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

~ Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J.S. Cooper, 1880

The earth laughs in flowers

~ e.e. cummings or Ralph Waldo Emerson

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

~ T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land