LOVE SONG FOR EMILY
(for Emily Dickinson)
You handed me
your eyes
so that I could see
as you saw.
I looking
in wonder
seeing you sew
the world together
in quick little stitches
a perfect embroidery
of knowing
drawing the thread through
& through
until nimble as a needle
I knew as you
knew.
Oh Emily
I was always
in love
with the beauty of your eyes
& how they saw
& said the world
the quick dashes
of your mind
like Braille
to my blindness
the Morse Code
of your thought
leading me through
the labyrinth of you
bound
in a nut
shell
until I arrived
at the beauty of your eyes
and you handed me
your seeing
and...I saw.
* * *
Our English teacher’s voice commanding us to open our books at Emily Dickinson. Doing as I was told...I glanced down shyly at her words looking bravely up at me and immediately at once I fell in love!
Our English teacher’s voice proclaiming “I don’t like teaching this woman…I don’t understand her! ”
Oh Emily, I knew you as you knew me and had already eloped with your mind leaving only the empty shell of a schoolboy for the teacher to shout at! Us laughing...running away together...running through the wild woods of words...gathering words and turning them into the daisy chain of poems.
Dónall Dempsey
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/love-song-for-emily-for-emily-dickinson/
