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June 2017
Sarah White
sarahwhitepages@gmail.com
I live in New York City where I enjoy art classes, plays, and concerts. Lucky me. Since retiring as a professor of French language and literature, I’ve published four poetry collections. The fifth, “to one who bends my time,” is forthcoming from Deerbrook Editions later this year. 

My favorite illustration of our June theme is Emily Dickinson’s no. 261 (Franklin edition), “I held a Jewel in my fingers,” which is, I think, a poem about not writing a poem.  Below is the original Dickinson poem followed by my own verse comment.

On Dickinson's Amethyst

Picture
Emily Dickinson by Sarah White

    [Emily Dickinson, No. 261, ed. Franklin]    

            I held a Jewel in my fingers –
            And went to sleep –
            The day was warm, and winds were prosy –
            I said “’Twill keep”

            I woke - and chid my honest fingers –
            The Gem was gone –
            And now, an Amethyst remembrance
            Is All I own -




            Ill Wind 

            To spell out its name 
            is to tempt the Fates.  
            Pretend not to know
            anything about it, not 
            to know what Dickinson 
            meant when she claimed
            the humdrum winds 
            lulled her to sleep
            and a Jewel fell  
            from her hand.

            Pained when she wakes, 
            she sees that an Amethyst 
            remains. I myself,
            given a semi-precious stone, 
            might be consoled. 
            But when she compares it 
            to the Gem she lost 

            Remembrance 
            leaves her cold. 
© 2017 Sarah White
Editor's Note:  If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -FF
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