Sunday, August 10, 2003

Closing the Fringe with Mom - Part 1

Emily Dickinson: My Letter to the World
Old Arizona

Mom says, "It was like a piece of lace. Very delicate and beautiful. I feel as if I saw the outline of someone's entire life. I know so much more about her, who she was, because of this than I ever did before, simply reading her poetry"

We both agreed that shows, particularly one person shows, where a person is doing material based on letters can often be deadly dull. But this show is hardly that. Certainly, if you have no interest in Emily in particular or poets or women writers in general, this may not be your cup of tea. Emily Dickinson led a very introspective life. But Elizabeth Dickinson breathes life into both her subject and those letters. We see her love of family and friends, and others, informing each passage. We see her sense of humor, as well as her near crippling doubts about her own abilities as an artist. It's an interesting look into the mind and heart of a woman from another time, a woman who still speaks to our time through the poetry she left behind.

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