Postcard of the Van Wickle Gates of Brown University

the Bee and the Clover

Postcard verso:

Dear Emily —
It is a surreal thing, sending
a card to your home. I in this
season of curdled cloud and leaves
falling away I am reminded of your
words: “Ashes denote that fire was —
Revere the greyest pile
For the departed creature’s sake
That hovered there awhile —”
Thank you for the Bee and the Clover, which
I will preserve in anticipation of Spring.
With Love from Providence —
Joshua Rex

Color postcard with illustration of girl with bird

blue cheeks

*content warning: suicide*

Postcard verso with inscription in green ink

Postcard face:

i got a bird
when i was
seven
i named
him
blue
cheeks

Postcard verso:

Dear Emily,
Your poem
Hope is the thing
with feathers
is the last
thing I wrote to
my daughter in a
letter before she
died by suicide
at the age of 30
in March 2017.

Here she is at age 7 with her
beloved
feathered
friend.
——————
And still I never lose hope.
<3 Amy

a robin sits on a blue shovel surrounded by flower pots

Summer in the Poet’s Garden with Marta McDowell, July 17 12:30-1:30pm

Summer was arguably Dickinson’s favorite season: more of her poems are set in summer than any other time of year. It’s not hard to understand why–summer at the Homestead brought with it trumpeting lilies, fragrant old-garden roses, delicious strawberries, and stores of fresh vegetables.

Join Marta McDowell, master gardener, landscape historian, and author of Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life for a virtual stroll through the Homestead gardens. Bring a cup of tea and spend an hour savoring blooms, stories, and verse gathered from Dickinson’s gardens. Learn about the flowers and plants Dickinson and her sister Lavinia cultivated in summer and how they preserved the fruits of their labor throughout the year.

This FREE program will be held on zoom from 12:30pm to 1:30pm EST. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Would you like Summer? Taste of our’s –
Spices? Buy – here!
Ill! We have Berries, for the parching!
Weary! Furloughs of Down!
Perplexed! Estates of Violet – Trouble ne’er looked on!
Captive! We bring Reprieve of Roses!
Fainting! Flasks of Air!
Even for Death – A Fairy medicine –
But, which is it – Sir?
(F272)

About Marta
Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Her latest book is Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, 2019. Timber Press also published The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times-bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens, and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its seventh printing. Marta is working on a new book about The Secret Garden and its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, due out from Timber Press in 2022. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.

Of course I received your Letter

Postcard (chocolate wrapper) verso:

Dear Emily,
Of course I received your Letter —
It Outright changed my Life,
And now I cannot imagine —
A Day without your Song.
I’ve been to your Homestead to find (see) you —
In Spring, Summer, and Fall —
Each Sojourn — you were missing!
But I sensed you in the Hall,
Spring in your Garden — a robin —
Welcomed me in Red Cravat —
He seemed to expect a token —
I was prepared for that!
In Summer there was a blatant flood —
with water everywhere,
But the ground smelled of heliotrope —
And it was Eden there.
When I visited in Autumn —
Amherst glowed on fire —
It was just so damn lovely
I felt the need to Die.
I would love to come in Winter —
on a Velvet December day —
to properly Recognize you —
And ‘Happy Birthday’ say.

Your Very Aff,
M. Owens

I listen from behind the door

Postcard verso:

for E.
I listen
from behind the door
a shadow in the hall
My head
hangs towards the floor
covered in a shawl

No one
sees me any more
can’t see the looks and stares
My heart
chambers one through four
struggle in their snares

From here
in my cloistered keep
I write a poem a day
But words
with the pains they reap
don’t keep the world away.

<3 Ali

Color postcard of Paris, balcony, and birds

Eternal — Emily

Postcard verso:

Dear Emily,
You fill the Space —
Between Earth and Moon —
Eternal Emptiness —
Between You and Me —
Warmed by the Sun —
Eternal — Emily —

Thassadite DiRAMi
from FRANCE to Amherst.

December the 10th (2019) #PostcardstoEmily

Poem #449

Postcard verso:

Nov. 3, 2019
_________

Emily Dickinson’s
opening line of
Poem #449, “That
it will never come again is what
makes life so sweet.” has helped
me cope with the unexpected
passing of my husband this
summer — Lisa Zimmermann

Color postcard of painted Isles of Shoals, Maine

little time outside

Postcard verso:

We have learned about Emily Dickinson
in our English class, and your story
is very inspiring. It is impressive that
someone so young who spent such
little time outside is
able to inspire and
influence generations of
writers for years and
years after. Thank you!

Color postcard with statue of Eleonora d' Arborea

company in this Great Absence

Postcard verso:

Dear Emily, I hope you’re
sitting with your father – and
Mine, in the same House. Your
Poetry was one of His gifts…
and I loved it immediately!
Your words are a sweet
company in this Great Absence.

With love, from Sardinia.

MAURA

Postcard face featuring a watercolor painting of various plants and the text "a letter Back to Emily"

Lily Chandley

Postcard verso:

To: Emily Dickinson

“I have never
started a poem
whose end I knew.
Writing a poem
is discovering.”

-Robert
Frost

From: Lily Chandley

JCHS 2021