Dear Miss Emily Dickinson,

My friends are my estate.

Dear Miss Dickinson,

Strike & I visited your home/museum last week. Tho' poetry has never really been "my thing", your words intrigued me & I managed to identify some things we share in common. Among them...

- a keen interest in Botany

- It seems finding just the right words to wrap around your thoughts was important to you - but rather difficult to do at times.

- You broke well established grammar rules (to the chagrin of editors/critics) - & frequently used dashes as opposed to more proper punctuation. Not sure when/how I started doing that, but I do it too.

- Your simple white dress reminds me of my more contemporary style - as jeans & a white shirt are among my favorite things to wear.

- Major themes of your writings include flowers/gardening & the Gospel & I sense that by closely examining & carefully considering nature, you gained a better understanding of the nature of The Creator too.

- I also relate to your enjoyment of solitude. If I don't enjoy some of it for myself each day (preferably in the morning), I feel rather cheated.

During our tour of your home, we went out on the lawn & stood near the giant old oak tree where we were given excerpts of your writings to share with the group by reading aloud. I was given...

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown,
Who ponders this tremendous scene--
This whole experiment in green,
As if it were his own!

&
Strike read this one...

"Faith" is a fine invention

When Gentlemen can see -

But Microscopes are prudent

In an Emergency

Despite having written hundreds of poems during your lifetime, at some point you concluded that

Saying nothing... sometimes says the most.

...and I agree! Tho' I'd be remiss if I didn't pause here, before closing, to say thank you for inspiring Strike to want to be (key words here) a better writer!! Hearing her tell me that herself after visiting your place was music to my ears(!) - bc by teaching, I've learned enough to know that...

Creating desire within a student
to want to learn what's being taught
means half the battle of teaching them
has already been fought :)

Hey - this poetry stuff IS kinda fun!

It was my pleasure getting to know you after ALL these years. Had I been given the opportunity to do the same when you were living on this side of eternity - I imagine .... we might have been friends :)

Many thanks & Sincerely,

A (modern) "Contemporary"



P.S. I've enclosed some pics that Strike took while wandering thru' your lovely gardens.

This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty....

Forever is composed of nows.

A word is dead when it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day.