Saturday's Poem(s): Revisiting Emily Dickinson...and Some Poetry in Lotion

hummingbird

We have known her for a long, long time, that belle of Amherst, and many of her poems are so familiar we recite them from memory. But I've recently been browsing through a great collection of her works, and she continues to be surprising and profound. She sometimes speaks in riddles, makes odd use of a dash, and has a quaintly 19th century tongue, but the reading and contemplation of her poems lead us to some thirst-quenching resonance and recognition. 

As often as her work appears in anthologies for young people, Dickinson is the kind of poet whose work makes deeper sense as we get older and have experienced more of life and loss."Life is a spell so exquisite," she wrote in a letter, "that everything conspires to break it."So, the choices are overwhelming, but here are three I like -- an observation of a hummingbird, ruminations on the misery of remorse, and a celebration of the power of books:

THE HUMMINGBIRD

A route of evanescence
With a revolving wheel;
A resonance of emerald,
A rush of cochineal;
And every blossom on the bush
Adjusts its tumbled head, ?
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy morning's ride.

REMORSE

Remorse is memory awake,
Her companies astir, —
A presence of departed acts
At window and at door.

It's past set down before the soul,
And lighted with a match,
Perusal to facilitate
Of its condensed despatch.

Remorse is cureless, — the disease
Not even God can heal;
For 't is his institution, —
The complement of hell.

A BOOK

HE ate and drank the precious words,

His spirit grew robust;

He knew no more that he was poor,

Nor that his frame was dust.

He danced along the dingy days,

And this bequest of wings

Was but a book. What liberty

A loosened spirit brings!

And, POETRY IN LOTION

On a lighter, more contemporary note, I wanted to tell you about an irreverent and brilliant young poet named George Chopping who does a kind of stand-up comic poetry that makes you laugh out loud and touches your heart all at the same time. I have had the pleasure of getting to know George because he is a friend of my daughter and her boyfriend, and if you happen to be in England sometime, you would be lucky to catch him at one of his Oxford jamborees or London gigs.

In the meantime, though, use this link to browse his blog: http://www.georgechopping.com/ Go ahead, click and wander. You'll find a few of his poems, ramblings, books for sale, and even a video or two so you can glimpse him in action. April being Poetry Month (as if we need a special month for something we devour daily, but whatever) it seemed an opportune time to introduce you to this lad, a genuine struggling poet, English accent and all.

A bit of George trivia: he and his girlfriend live on a house boat...and years ago he was a footman for the Queen. Yes, that Queen. Most important, he's talented and witty and has a very kind heart.