Déjà Food

From our food editor, Verla Burrell-Bordelon:

I hope you were able to enjoy a savory Thanksgiving feast this past Thursday.  I also hope you've been able to enjoy tasty leftovers again and again throughout the rest of the weekend.

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) loved Thanksgiving -- and left-overs too -- and he immortalized his love a feasting on turkey and on all of the many and various side dishes and desserts in his poem "One Helping had I – then the rest" (below on the left)."  

Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "One Blessing had I than the rest" (below on the right).  

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
One Helping had I – then the rest
Much larger to my Eyes
When I stopped gorging – satisfied –
I’d grown another size –
 
It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Contented with this Fare –

I knew no more of Want – of Food –
Fantastic to the crumb
For these new Rations in my Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –
 
With Heaven consumed and Heaven to go –
I ate till I was Blue
Life’s Latitudes leant over – full –
My Judgment perished – too –
 
With Bliss so festively thus served –
With Paradise in store –
With Foods all served to Us – in Bowls –
I’ll masticate some more –
​

By Emily Dickinson:
 
One Blessing had I than the rest
So larger to my Eyes
That I stopped gauging – satisfied –
For this enchanted size –

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Contented as Despair –

I knew no more of Want – or Cold –
Phantasms both become
For this new Value in the Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –

The Heaven below the Heaven above –
Obscured with ruddier Blue –
Life's Latitudes leant over – full –
The Judgment perished – too –

Why Bliss so scantily disburse –
Why Paradise defer –
Why Floods be served to Us – in Bowls –
I speculate no more – 
​

NOTE:  Dickinson wrote an earlier version of this poem about Super Bowl buffets.  You can find is HERE.  Which version do you prefer?