Two Scenes from "James and the Very Odd Day"

If you've been following along, then you know I've been publishing posts about my glorious, curious, so strange, very odd day on Thursday, September 3.  Today's post will include both scenes from  Episode 2, "The Scattered Letter" (part 2) and "Life Poet."

It's for CERTain, dear reader!  Today's post includes two incidents, two incidents in one! 

LOL -- people of a certain age will understand this.  Let me add that I made a pun in my post from 9/5 that landed at the top of the Pinder Pun Scale (Category 3:  so witty, so clever, that you can’t help but admire the intellect of the punster); however, I'll admit that this one hit rock bottom (Category 1: puns that should probably never have been spoken aloud) ~ so my deepest apologies to you!  Let's proceed, shall we?

Episode 2, Scene 1:  "The Scattered Letter"

​As you can see from the episode chart at the top of this post, “the biggest shock of all” from my very odd day is yet to come!  I will cover that in a future post for Episode 1, Scene 4.  At the end of that scene, though – and after the rapid response of a pair of highly trained reference librarians – I ventured out-of-doors for some much-needed fresh air and an opportunity for my heart-rate to return to normal.  I snapped a few pics of the place, and then I strolled over to the first of the three bookstores I visited. 

Below left and center:  The library building opened in 1936 -- but as a US post office and courtrooms.   Below right:  The first bookstore I visited. 

​The first book to catch my eyes was Letters to the World, Poems from the Wom-Po LISTSERV.

“Shirley,” I said to my invisible traveling companion, “it must be in there.”
 
Surely Shirley knew exactly what I was talking about (“about what I was talking” for you grammar nuts).  However, when I checked the index, my heart rate began to climb again.  I did NOT see any reference to Dickinson -- in a book called Letters to the World.
​
“Shirley, it must here.”

I quickly turned to the front of the book and though the poem I was looking for was not there in its entirety, the first line was quoted:  “This is my letter to the World.”

My heart rate began to calm. 

Just FYI:  This was the opening poem Mabel Loomis Todd printed in the very first series of Dickinson’s Poems published in 1890.

Below left: The quoted line in the book. Below Center: The full poem. Below right: A bit about the book (click to enlarge).  

Episode 2, Scene 2:  "Life Poet"

Next, I drew from the shelf Poetry Will Save Your Life, “‘a delightfully hybrid book: part anthology, part critical study, part autobiography’ (Chicago Tribune) that is organized around fifty-one remarkable poems by poets such as Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath.”

 A chapter entitled “Faith” included discussion of three poems by Dickinson, “After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes,” “I’m Nobody. Who Are You?” and “‘Hope’ Is A Thing With Feathers” (Oopsie…the poem is “‘Hope’ is THE thing with feathers.”)

Below: The complete contents of the book (clinck on a thumbnail pic to see more).

As I thumbed through the book – an unexpected twist!  THERE on page 81 was the letter, the letter from Dickinson to Higginson, the very letter that was absent earlier in the day when. . . . 

Well, I'll get to that part of the tale tomorrow – and it’s just ONE of the startling and stunning segments coming up in Episode 1.  Be sure to hold tight to your headgear tomorrow!

Two other quick tales from my time in this shop:

There were no collections of Dickinson’s poetry on the shelves; however, there was a thin paperback of poems by one “Ray Clark Dickson” – a near miss with the last name from this mister. However, I scanned a few of the poems and they seemed clever and quirky enough to give this "Dickson" a try -- so I bought the book.  One of these days I’ll provide a few thoughts on it in future post.

Finally, when I purchased the book, I was somewhat surprised by the spiritless and near-inanimate service.  To add a bit of levity to the moment, I thought I'd tell the story of my recent “surreal” encounter when I was wearing my Emily Dickinson Museum hat, and a gentlemen came up to me and asked, "Who's that?"  He had never heard of Emily Dickinson – I reported on this in a recent post, HERE. 

​Before I got to the “surreal” and ironic conclusion to the story, the clerk snapped at me, “I’m sure not everyone has heard of Emily Dickinson.”  

I ignored her crankiness and finished the story with a smile – for a second man in a "POETRY” t-shirt passed just after the "Who's that?" moment, pointed at my Emily Dickinson Museum hat, and said, “nice hat.”
​
“Now how surreal is that?”  I laughed – and the clerk FINALLY smiled.  I think I even detected a slight laugh.
​
Now – I ask you – how surreal was that?

TWO UPDATES:

I Google-searched "Ray Clark Dickson," the poet who penned the slim volume of poems I bought mentioned above. 

​Turns out he was born in 1919, and he died in 2016 at the age of 97!  I found this bit of info on him (click to enlarge): 

I also received info from word-guru Nancy Friedman about an upcoming album release to be called "Hope is the Thing With Feathers":

Forthcoming album from Rhiannon Giddens:
https://shop.rhiannongiddens.com/
No mention of Emily D. on the site, although maybe in the liner notes? (Are there still liner notes?)

At least she got the title right!  ;-)