Emily
1. from the introduction to Emily Dickinson’s Letters by Mabel Loomis Todd
The lovers eager
(a passing mood),
she kept no journal.
Far-away
in her garden,
dark finger-tips
hold a shadow.
2 from the introduction to Emily Dickinson’s Letters by Thomas H. Johnson
The husbandry of mornings
and afternoons aside
delayed (perhaps a day or two)
approaching death.
She was still.
At the end of a tether.
habit, thread-tied, held.
3 from the Introduction to The Master Letters edited by R.W. Franklin
The heart a little distant
claims few Prerogatives—
nothing more destroyed.
To slant the Truth—
no mention
of obscured Uncertainty—
stray marks have been ignored.