In yesterday's post I mentioned that Emily Dickinson used the word “August” in four poems, and she used the word “august” in three" -- plus, I posted “There is a Zone whose even years,” a poem which uses the word “August." Therefore, today I’ll share “That sacred closet when you sweep,” a poem that uses “august.”
| Also, if by chance you follow my posts, then you know that during the recent month-and-a-half long heat wave, I posted info and pics from my 2024 Closet Clean-Out Extravaganza – yes, I cleaned out eight closets in our home – so what could be more appropriate than a poem about cleaning out the closet of one’s memory! (“Memories / Like the corners of my mind / Misty watercolor memories / Of the way we were….) For the real closets I cleaned, I used a sturdy, heavy-duty industrial broom; however, when sweeping out the closet entitled “Memory,” Dickinson recommends “a reverential Broom.” “‘Twill be a Labor of surprise” – even with the real-life closets, for sure! I gotta say, it was so much fun going through our closets and finding and re-discovering artifacts from our past! Truly, “August the Dust of that Domain.” |  |
In a funny twist to all of this, when I was exploring this poem, I stumbled upon a blog called “The Nature of Things,” posts from a retiree named Dorothy Borders, on “Books, gardens, birds, the environment, politics, or whatever happens to be grabbing my attention today.” She says that she hopes to “address environmental issues and the existential threat to the planet that climate change is.” That blog is HERE.
Back in 2017, she “spent the past week clearing out closets,” and she wrote a piece about this very poem, HERE.
She noted, “I tried to be a lot more ruthless in my sorting of the closets, but there, too, I found lots of memories - pictures, mementoes of my daughters' childhoods, and of my own and my husband's and even of our parents and other ancestors. Memories that invite reverence and reflection and made me slow down and sweep carefully because august is the dust of that domain.”
Dickinson ends her poem by stating, “Unchallenged – let it lie / You cannot supersede itself / But it can silence you.”
With real-life closets, it is easy to let them go “unchallenged” and to “let them lie.” The work to clean them out and re-organize them can seem intimidating, daunting.
Do not let those feelings “silence you.” LOL! You can do it! ; )
Back in 2017, she “spent the past week clearing out closets,” and she wrote a piece about this very poem, HERE.
She noted, “I tried to be a lot more ruthless in my sorting of the closets, but there, too, I found lots of memories - pictures, mementoes of my daughters' childhoods, and of my own and my husband's and even of our parents and other ancestors. Memories that invite reverence and reflection and made me slow down and sweep carefully because august is the dust of that domain.”
Dickinson ends her poem by stating, “Unchallenged – let it lie / You cannot supersede itself / But it can silence you.”
With real-life closets, it is easy to let them go “unchallenged” and to “let them lie.” The work to clean them out and re-organize them can seem intimidating, daunting.
Do not let those feelings “silence you.” LOL! You can do it! ; )
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