“Friday I tasted life. It was a vast morsel. A circus passed the house – still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out. The lawn is full of south and the odors tangle, and I hear to-day for the first time the river in the tree”.
Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Mrs J.G. Holland, May 1866.
I wanted to find a snappy quote for Friday, but I fell over this.
Make of it, what you will: Emily Dickinson defies intepretation, and I have resisted the temptation to google her words into meaning.
She might be referring to food – which opens up the whole idea of exploring the tastes and is a lesson, for me, in itself…
Or she might be talking about life, in which case, I concur.
It is, indeed, a “vast morsel”.
After a week of flashes – and sparks – and unexpected-clicking-into-place, this quote works well. It works more than well, actually; it captures both the senses that have been awakened, and the appetite that I have now found. It reflects the colour with a tint of chaos; the playful delight of new sights; the ‘gosh did that really happen’ feeling that I totally get, even though no circuses have been parading outside my window….
It’s just that I’ve started seeing – and tasting – and sensing life.
Tags: life, poetry and prose, reading the world
