KEEPING THE FAITH by
Bob Jones Sonoma West 3-14-13
Small Poems, Big Read
Once again, the gods of literacy and
libraries have called us to the Big Read. All praise and thanksgiving be given! No matter how advanced the format, we still
must read, ponder, and inwardly digest the writings of others. It’s how we learn to use our iPads, and it’s
how our souls tap into the wisdom of the ages.
Lo and
behold, the gods have directed us to read a poet. We might ask, Are the gods crazy? And such a poet! They want us to read Emily Dickinson, whose
work is vast, often difficult, and inexhaustible.
I know
some few things about Dickinson from studies down at Berkeley those good old
years ago. To my mind, much that has
recently appeared in the press about her is superficial and misleading. She is much more than the poet of "'Hope'
is the thing with feathers - " or "I'm Nobody! Who are you?", wonderful as those poems
are.
But how
about "Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?", "My Life
had stood - a Loaded Gun - ", "The Black Berry - wears a Thorn in his
side - ," or "Split the Lark - and you'll find the Music - "? Some of these are all but unfathomable, and
yet they are worth the effort of trying to fathom them. That's what makes Dickinson a great poet. Time spent with her poems rewards us the way
time spent with all great art does.
To get
at Dickinson we need to go beyond thinking that the whole meaning of a poem can
be captured in a paraphrase. With great
poems like Dickinson gives us, we have to enter the world of the poem and live
there a while. We have to come back to
it again and again as we would come back to a favorite place in the woods or a
cliff by the sea. Each time we realize a
bit more of what is there for us. If the
"Big Read" helps us appreciate this way of reading, it has done an
even greater service than calling us to include books and reading in our lives.
It has given us a way to perceive what is important, and that's worth a lot.
If you participate in the Big Read, be sure
to get an edition of Dickinson’s poems that hasn’t edited out her multitude of
dashes, her strange spellings, terse diction, and inexact rhymes. It’s not Dickinson without these
oddities. The Complete Poems of Emily
Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson includes 1775 poems that can keep you
delving for the rest of your life. The
book is one of the biggest reads you’ll ever find.
Short of all that, a really good choice is
the Shambhala Pocket Classics edition of around a hundred and forty poems
selected and introduced by Berkeley poet Brenda Hillman. She sets us on just the right path, pointing
out that Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are the “spiritual mother and father
of American Poetry.” Hillman says
Dickinson’s poems help us live more purely and more powerfully, and she’s right
about that too. This little book has
been available free at some local libraries, and you can Google Shambhala and
get if for eight dollars.
You do well to attend some of the Dickinson
events being held here abouts as well. We all benefit from discussion when it
comes to matters of the heart, head, mortality, and eternity, especially the
way Dickinson goes at them. Fran
Claggett, Professor in the Lifelong Learning Program at Sonoma State
University, and yours truly will host such a discussion at the Monte Rio
Community Center starting at 6:30 on March 21.
It would be great to see you there.
In the meantime, enjoy this:
“Faith” is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see –
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.
And ponder this:
But
when all Space has been beheld
And
all Dominion shown
The smallest Human Heart’s extent
Reduces it to none.
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