My recent posts have focused on a visit to a branch of the public library in Cape Charles, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore at the southern tip of the DelMarVa Peninsula, to see what works by Dickinson the library had on hand.
Yesterday’s post was about a slim volume of poetry, “Yowl, Selected Poems about Cats,” and it included Dickinson’s poem “She sights a Bird – she chuckles” (about a cat’s failed attempt to snag a robin).
The next book I spotted was “Ten Poems to Change Your Life” compiled by Roger Housden.
Hmm…would any work by Dickinson be in there?
Yesterday’s post was about a slim volume of poetry, “Yowl, Selected Poems about Cats,” and it included Dickinson’s poem “She sights a Bird – she chuckles” (about a cat’s failed attempt to snag a robin).
The next book I spotted was “Ten Poems to Change Your Life” compiled by Roger Housden.
Hmm…would any work by Dickinson be in there?
 | I opened the book to scan the table of contents, and – drum roll please – nope, no Dickinson. To be honest, though, I wasn’t all that surprised since Dickinson’s poems tend to be rather brief. Of the ten poems listed, I’ve read only one, “Song of Myself,” by Walt Whitman (and by the way, I was intrigued by a quote by Whitman on the facing page: “There will soon be no more priests, Their work is done. . . . Every man shall be his own priest” – so perhaps I’ll explore and discuss that in a future post). The “ten poems to change your life” – according to Housden – are the following: “The Journey” by Mary Oliver “Last Night As I was Sleeping” by Antonio Machado “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman |
| “Zero Circle” by Rumi “The Time Before Death” by Kabir “Ode to my Socks” by Pablo Neruda “Last Gods” by Galway Kinnell “For the Anniversary of my Death” by W. S. Merwin “Lover After Love” by Derek Walcott “The Dark Night” by St. John of the Cross |  |
I also took a quick look at the book’s introduction, which begins with the line, “Good poetry has the power to start a fire in your life,” and then down at the bottom of the page I spotted this:
“This is how Emily Dickinson described the experience of reading poetry:
‘If I read a book (and) it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?’”
Sooo…while Dickinson has no poem in Housden’s top ten, he did recognize her perspective on “what is poetry” in his book.
Finally, as I prepared this post and re-looked at the pics I took while in the Cape Charles Library, I noticed at the bottom of page xii (with poems 6 through 10) that Housden included “Other Poets to Change Your Life: A Brief List” on page 129 of his book. However, I did not see that while in the Cape Charles Library, so alas, I did not view his list. Therefore, I do not know if Dickinson appears there or not. But…
I drove over to our local library to check it out; alas, they did not have a copy of this book. I searched online, but could not find a web-based copy of the book. Sooo…this bit of info will have to wait until another day.
“This is how Emily Dickinson described the experience of reading poetry:
‘If I read a book (and) it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?’”
Sooo…while Dickinson has no poem in Housden’s top ten, he did recognize her perspective on “what is poetry” in his book.
Finally, as I prepared this post and re-looked at the pics I took while in the Cape Charles Library, I noticed at the bottom of page xii (with poems 6 through 10) that Housden included “Other Poets to Change Your Life: A Brief List” on page 129 of his book. However, I did not see that while in the Cape Charles Library, so alas, I did not view his list. Therefore, I do not know if Dickinson appears there or not. But…
I drove over to our local library to check it out; alas, they did not have a copy of this book. I searched online, but could not find a web-based copy of the book. Sooo…this bit of info will have to wait until another day.
 | UPDATE: STOP THE PRESSES! I found a limited preview of the book on OpenLibrary.org – and while they only provided a handful of pages to view, the site did allow me to “search” inside the book – so I searched for the word “change” – and voila! I was able to view the pages that included that word, and I found the list of “Other Poets to Change Your Life,” and – drum roll please – Dickinson was not on the list! The poets included are as follows: Robert Bly Hafiz Seamus Heaney Jane Hirshfield |
| Denise Levertov Juan Ramon Jimenez Mirabai Rainer Maria Rilke Kenneth Rexroth W. B. Yeats Housden also listed a few anthologies and general poetry books – but no Emily Dickinson. **sigh** |  |
Well, I think y’all know who I would have included in a book entitled “Ten Poems to Change Your Life” (or had I compiled a list of “Other Poets to Change Your Life”) – so perhaps one day soon I will fill you in on how & /when I was introduced to Emily Dickinson (spoiler alert: in happened in Mrs. Nadir’s 8th grade classroom at Mark Twain Intermediate School).
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