Daily Nourishment for May 29: How to Know It’s Poetry with Guidance from Emily Dickinson
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 40 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 13 minutes
“It seemed to me that what she was doing was much more interesting than what was being done to her.” - Jen Bervin
Pause.
Take six deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale while reading “I Dwell in Possibility” by Emily Dickinson.
Prompt.
“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
— Emily Dickinson, Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1870)
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes then journal, take notes, or begin writing a new poem, story, or essay using the quote above and the questions below.
—What works of literature, or other types of art, have thrilled and electrified you over the past few weeks?
—What works of literature or other art types have you engaged with but can't remember much of?
—What do you feel in your body, mind, and soul when you read something powerful and transformative?
—What do you feel in your body, mind, and soul when you write something powerful and transformative?
Want More?
View Jen Bervin’s “Dickinson Composites Series,”a series of large-scale embroidered quilts” depicting “Emily Dickinson’s variant marks in her manuscripts that have been omitted.”
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Flourish Anyway with Rhythms, Rituals, & Retreats
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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