Aftertaste
(undated)
Emily Dickenson said
That she did not want to be
a famous poet;
"Emily," I said,
"Then why did you leave all
those poems lying around
For your relatives to find
And scholars to analyze.
"I never thought that my poems
Would be read in freshman English;
My feeling about death,
And the robin outside,
And going to church are known;
What does the town think of
me?"
"I was only a spinster at a
time
When unmarried women were pariahs;
I needed to say my self to
myself,
I wanted those poems to stay
on shelves--to fade into Amherst;
After the first few were rejected,
I wrote them as favors to myself."
You did me a favor, Emily
But I read them when I was
only sixteen.
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The Poetry of Vonne Barnett |
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