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Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan

0 posted 2009-05-24 11:19 PM


.


I’ve been wanting to for some time now,
and since I’m near the end of my years
I feel what harm can it do . . .

I’ve never really been impressed by Emily Dickinson .
I know that means my knucles drag on the ground.

Yes, there’s a poem or two, but that can be said
of any of us here.

I think the hype is all about a half cracked recluse
who went around in a white dress and nothig more.

There, I said it,
now let me burn in .  . .


.



© Copyright 2009 John Pawlik - All Rights Reserved
rwood
Member Elite
since 2000-02-29
Posts 3793
Tennessee
1 posted 2009-05-25 12:54 PM


Not for you, huh?

Yeah, many people are just not that into her.

Though-- most memorable for me, concerning death, "I died for beauty, but was scarce," is the one poem that always gets me in the end.

"And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms.
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names."

inevitable for all~ a silencing with time and moss...and many times not even so honorably or peacefully, we are forgotten.

serenity blaze
Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

2 posted 2009-05-25 04:08 PM


quote:
I think the hype is all about a half cracked recluse



Um, I think that can be said about many of us here as well. *blush and chuckle*

And John, it's okay. I feel the same way about Rod McKuen. (ducking Kari-------------->zip!)

Kaoru
Deputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Elite
since 2003-06-07
Posts 3892
where the wild flowers grow
3 posted 2009-05-28 02:50 AM


I might as well come out and say I never really liked Plath.
Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
4 posted 2009-05-28 03:14 PM


Grinning at Karen...she knows me well enough to know that I appreciate most forms of poetry [even McKuen] and don't understand a lot of others...but I try.

Apparently, John, you at least read enough to know that Emily's not your cuppa tea.

And there's a lot to be said about the effort.

Bob K
Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208

5 posted 2009-06-17 10:45 PM




Dear John,

          You've established your own perfectly respectable ancestors.  They speak to you the way that you can most directly be reached.  There may be women among them, I don't remember from the generous sample you sent me a year or more back but they were all clear spoken and they all made good use of images.

     You may not be able to chose your parents, your brothers and your sisters or your family in general.  But your community of kindred spirits is at least in part a matter of affinity across time.  The failure in not loving most of Emily Dickinson is in not trusting the value of your own taste as a guide for your reading.  That's it.

     Writers chose their own creative ancestors.  It's part of how we create who we are.

     If other people want to quarrel with your taste, let them.  All you need are the ancestors who will help you be the writer you need to be when it's you and that piece of paper.  Everything else is extra baggage, optional, and occasionally excess.

     Myself, I tend to like more of her.  

     She is wilder than most people think.  Her only punctuation marks were dashes, so a lot of the ways that people have forced her verse into meaning aren't true.  She was more ambiguous, harder to catch and hold than that.  More like the people who work without punctuation today, and force extra layers of meaning into the texts in that way.  The folks who did the first editions were small minded, and were trying to make her sound cute, which she emphatically is not.

     The first edition to do a good job with her text is the Johnson text in the late 60s or early 70s, should you wish to take another look.  I wouldn't blame you if you chose otherwise, of course.  

Respectfully,

Bob Kaven

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