Skip to main content

Giving thanks


Poet: Emily Dickinson
Reason: Getting back on the horse with a dear friend and valued muse

So, she is back hey? Monica’s writing is intrinsically bound up with my own because her experience of blogging was the one I followed. It is nice to read her writing again, albeit in a very different style. I particularly like her change to poetry, given that I am endeavouring to read more poetry.

In a nod to M and C getting back into the game, one of my favourite of Emily’s poems thus far:

As if I asked a common Alms,
And in my wondering hand
A Stranger pressed a Kingdom,
And I, bewildered, stand –
As if I asked the Orient
Had it for me a Morn –
And it should lift it’s purple Dikes,
And shatter Me with Dawn!

Emily wrote more than the 1789 poems in the collection that I have, and most of them are far too worthy for me, but there is this cheeky streak to her that ensures the fraction that I love, I flat out adore. I suspect that the power she found to write her difficult and daring verse rested in the fact that each poem was written for a specific correspondent and was not to be published in her lifetime. Such freedom to create, such creativity without the support of an extensive audience!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Textbook

Trust me, they know the climate science Let’s imagine for a moment that the 1% of Australia, with their university degrees, access to the best climate science and neoliberal think tank papers and their dominance in politics, were acting in rational self-interest. They know that the water and energy wars are coming and they have a country with unique assets: No land borders Renewable energy resources Space and minerals Industries that specialise in extracting minerals Industries that can be turned to R&D and manufacturing An education system to get citizens to the point of carrying out necessary R&D And a politically apathetic population that believes whatever the politicians tell them through monopolised and crippled information outlets. To be honest, if I were a conservative politician in Australia (and the way I was brought up, I may as well be), this is what I would do to ensure my political and social survival: I would claim the government didn’t believe i...

Full Contact Origami

When I was a secretary at ADI, spending my days: a) writing up tutorials for my Uni course, b) having countless running email conversations with workmates and Kristen in Canberra, and c) not really doing anything I had a vast word file of all the jokes I had ever received. I am sure I have it SOMEWHERE in my box of important papers, but this one, recently sent to me again, was one of my all time favourites. I use the phrase ‘full contact origami’ all the time, usually during my ‘torment a barfly’ routine during which I tell sozzled Lotharios that I am a retired World Bootscooting champion who is looking to move into acting in karaoke video clips and was born on Ayers rock because my mum wanted me to channel Azaria Chamberlain’s spirit. Blessed are the jokers, because they will get mates rates at the bar in heaven. The following was published in The New York Times. This is a NYU college admissions application essay question, and an actual answer written by an applicant: Qu...