Happy Birthday, Dearest Emily!

Happy Birthday, dearest Emily!

Emily Dickinson

Birthday Girl Emily Dickinson (Born 10 December 1830).

FIVE EVERYDAY FACTS ABOUT EMILY DICKINSON:

EMILY ELIZABETH WAS A MIDDLE CHILD, SANDWICHED BETWEEN OLDER BROTHER (WILLIAM) AUSTIN AND YOUNGER SISTER LAVINIA (NORCROSS).

SHE WAS KNOWN FOR HER SIMPLE WARDROBE OF MOSTLY WHITE CLOTHING.

EMILY HAD A PET NEWFOUNDLAND DOG NAMED CARLO.

SHE WAS A GIFTED BAKER.

EMILY WAS A DEDICATED AND WELL-EDUCATED GARDENER.

“I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”-Emily Dickinson

The Eighth of September by Pablo Neruda

The Eighth of September by Pablo Neruda

This day, Today, was a brimming glass.
This day, Today, was an immense wave.
This day was all the Earth.
This day, the storm-driven ocean
lifted us up in a kiss
so exalted we trembled
at the lightning flash
and bound as one, fell,
and drowned, without being unbound.
This day our bodies grew
stretched out to Earth’s limits,
orbited there, melded there
to one globe of wax, or a meteor’s flame.
A strange door opened, between us,
and someone, with no face as yet,
waited for us there.

Happy Birthday, Miss (Emily) Brontë!

The creator of Wuthering Heights, and some truly fabulous poetry, was born on 30 July 1818. She was the weird sister, and for that I love her even more.

Emily Brontë by Branwell Brontë

Emily Brontë by Branwell Brontë

A QUOTE: “If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”-Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

SOME WORKS: Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; Wuthering Heights

A KEEPSAKE:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë at Cynthia’s Attic. $24.00

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Tenacious Lady, Died 152 Years Ago

Elizabeth Barrett Browning died on 29 June 1861. Here she is, looking intense.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, September 1859

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, September 1859

QUOTE: “Who so loves believes the impossible.”

SOME WORKS: The Seraphim, and Other Poems; Casa Guidi Windows; Aurora Leigh; Poems Before Congress; Last Poems.

A KEEPSAKE:

Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Earrings by Persephone

Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Earrings by Persephone. $24.00

[Intermezzo] Word-Dreams: Vegetable Poems

The best poems are written on the hardy limbs of vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, and parsnips. Delicate truths spiral up stems and skip across indentations left by careless produce handlers. Gut-words escape from the penetralia of the mind, to end up nib-scratched on rutted, aromatic skin. Ink soaks into small fleshless creases, and pools at the roots. Cabbage leaves are the superior blotting papers of the Cruciferous world.

Happy Birthday Allen Ginsberg, You Fresh-Faced Cutie

Allen Ginsberg was born 87 years ago today. Here he is, looking all fresh-faced yet intense.

Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

QUOTE: “Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.”

SOME WORKS: Howl and Other Poems; Kaddish and Other Poems; Reality Sandwiches; The Yage Letters; Mind Breaths; Deliberate Prose

A KEEPSAKE:

Allen Ginsberg Pencils by the big harumph

Allen Ginsberg Quote Pencils by the big harumph. $10.00