Close to Home

Dickinson wrote, “Where Thou art — that — is Home” – and this “thou,” i.e., me, has a lot going on where I art – and close to where I art (as the title from my latest movie emphasizes).

First, this November at the nearby Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center, a Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Site, I will be presenting “Lewis & Clark & Dickinson.” 

What did Emily Dickinson share in common with Lewis & Clark? 

Well, not a lot – although Dickinson’s life (1830 – 1886) overlapped William Clark’s life (1770 – 1838) by eight years (Meriwether Lewis died 21 years before Dickinson was born, and the L&C expedition concluded 26 years before her birth).
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So what in the world will I be discussing?  The language L&C & D used in describing nature. 

Second, in December I’ll be hosting my fourth annual ED Birthday concert extravaganza.  A friend of mine sings songs I’ve composed based on the Belle of Amherst’s poetry – with me at the piano.

This year’s concert will include the following poems set to music:
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The Last Night That She Lived
The Nearest Dream Recedes – Unrealized
As Imperceptible as Grief
One Life of So Much Consequence
Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush
How Happy is the Little Stone
This World Is Not Conclusion
Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers
Adrift! One Little Boat Adrift

Plus one more.

Finally – and this one is not yet set in stone – but I may be presenting an ED birthday talk on a poem by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the long-ago editor at The Atlantic magazine who once predicted “oblivion” for Dickinson after Mabel Loomis Todd published some of the poet’s works posthumously in 1890.  I have found what I believe to be a secret tribute to Dickinson written by Aldrich – perhaps a man too proud to admit that he was wrong?

Of course, I also have my daily posts on my plog (poetry blog) (also published on Counter Social, Tumblr, and Substack), my Featured Poems of the Week (always found HERE), my time to read and research (as I find the time), planning for my travels (a BIG trip with lots of surprises coming up next month), my music (I need to find more time to play and compose -- plus for the upcoming concert, I need to "clean up" some of my chicken-scratched sheet music), my cats, miscellaneous chores (which never seem to end, huh?), my deck (I'm going to repaint it soon), and more.  So much to do!

"To be is to do" - Socrates

"To do is to be" - Sartre

"Do Be Do Be Do" - Sinatra 

AND,  from of “The Simpsons,” S5E7: “Bart's Inner Child”:

Self-help Guru Brad Goodman: “You see, folks? We're all trying to please someone else. And as soon as you're not a human being, you're a human doing. Then what comes next?”

Bart Simpson: “A human going!”

I've gotta go, foiks!  Peace Art!