"My Emily Dickinson"

10 December 2020: Today is Emily Dickinson’s 190th birthday. The Emily Dickinson Museum has been encouraging everyone to think about “My Emily Dickinson.” Like a good student, I have been. And here’s what I would say: “This year, my Emily Dickinson has been sustaining. Her poetry—reading it, thinking about it, teaching it, hearing my students talk about it—has inspired me and kept me going. I’ve found myself escaping this world awhile while thinking about her words. And, in the kind of paradox she would love, I also found myself drawing on her words when I tried to make sense of this world.

This morning, I woke up thinking about “I cannot live with you,” particularly these lines: 

So We must meet apart –
You there – I – here –
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are – and Prayer –
And that White Sustenance –
Despair –

What more is there to say about how perfectly this captures our moment? Separate but joined, sustained, but on prayer and despair. And, of course, connection—or the desire for it. 

Dickinson offers so much more, of course, but right now, that’s my Dickinson and I am grateful for her.