The Thing with Feathers: Inspiration from Emily Dickinson

 

Mixed Media: Emily Dickinson portrait with book page and leaf - 2012, Julie Jordan Scott

The more I get to know Emily Dickinson, the more I love her. I have been an admirer for quite a few years now, but my word-love has flourished since I visited her home in Amherst Massachusetts. Not once, not twice, but three times so far and I think another trip there is long overdue. It isn’t as if travel to Western Massachusetts is convenient: I live in Bakersfield, California, its more that visiting her home is like visiting Mecca.

 

Not only do I visit her home, I take in the stomping grounds of other literary figures.

My visit, though, does not begin until I have paid due homage to Emily.

So many people think of her as an odd recluse who had agoraphobia among other mental illnesses. Perhaps she did fight some disease but we don’t know for certain. There are so many books of research about her poems, I am sure we could find a researcher or several right now who would argue for all sorts of illnesses and quirks.

What I feel most strongly about is this: Emily Dickinson was a one of a kind. She lived with great passion, continually learning via the news of the day from both her family and newspapers and magazines. She enjoyed baking for the neighborhood children – she would lower Ginger cookies in a basket to them as they waited below her bedroom window. She was a botanist – spending hours in

"The Thing with Feathers" inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry. Mixed Media, Julie Jordan Scott, 2013

the garden drawing flora and communing with the trees.

 

Yes, she sought refuge in solitude.

She spoke to people behind a curtain.

She also corresponded with many and grew friendships via her entertaining letters.

What impresses me most about her is how the mystery surrounding her continues to invite inquiry AND the more I know of her the more I want to know. The more I know of her the more I want to create in her honor. The more I know the more I want to share with others.

I have just finished a piece called “The Thing with Feathers” based on this stanza of hers, one of her famous oft quoted ones:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

 = = =

This is me, Julie Jordan Scott, writing in my notebook on the lawn of the house where Emily lived in Amherst, Massachusetts

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

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