Poet to Poet
The Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin
"Unable are the Loved to die for Love is Immortality" ~ Emily Dickinson.
Series Editor Ivy Schweitzer, of the Poet to Poet column in the EDIS Bulletin, has been a generous and valuable advisor in the editing of my book Death Kindly Stopped For Me. Ivy invited me to submit an article for Poet to Poet, which now appears in Volume 36, Number 2 of the Bulletin, November/December 2024.
In her introduction to my article, entitled A Resoundingly Upbeat Death, Ivy writes that my book “seems appropriate at this historical moment when we are immersed in senseless death around the world and yet a politics of joy and futurism has emerged on our national scene. Jackson brings us a Canadian perspective, as a retired schoolteacher who lives with her photographer husband in Aurora, Ontario” (page 22.)
Here is an excerpt from my Poet to Poet article:
One soporific summer, while camping with my family at Killbear Park on the eastern shores of Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada, I rediscovered the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Our sons were a busy two and seven years old. My husband Jim and I drove over Burks Falls one beautiful day with them in tow, as they gleefully anticipated a visit to the butter tart stand on the road bordered by the Magnetawan River leading into town. Later we were to picnic at nearby Brooks Falls, which Jim loved to photograph. At the local weekend bazaar, on a rickety wooden table cluttered with musty books, I picked up a small and nondescript volume entitled The Collected Poetry of Emily Dickinson. Inside on the copyright page, it noted that the book was originally published in 1924 as The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. I paid twenty-five cents for my treasure and nestled it carefully in my big straw bag by the basket of fresh blueberries and jars of homemade jam. After an energizing waterfall visit and a leisurely picnic, I could hardly wait to get back to our tent site! That afternoon, lounging on a sun-kissed craggy rock overlooking the bay and it surrounding wind-bent pine trees, I became reacquainted with the mesmerizing magic of Dickinson’s poetry.
* * * * *
Many years after that summer by Georgian Bay when I reacquainted with Emily Dickinson, I began to write my own poetry personifying Death. Our adventuresome sons were now grown and independent. Jim and I had retired from our teaching professions, having moved almost imperceptibly over slow rolling time into the latter years of our lives. The Covid pandemic pervaded the planet and instantly made the specter of Death more visible all around us. As more years pass, friends and family in our generation begin to meet with Death on a more regular basis. It became for me an interesting endeavor to explore in my own poetry how Death could indeed be the multifaceted character so indelibly seared into the enduring fabric of Dickinson’s poems. My book was thus born, entitled Death Kindly Stopped For Me: A Book of Poetry Inspired by Emily Dickinson.
Note to my fabulous subscribers: I will be taking a hiatus from my Substack newsletter writing to focus on my poetry writing for my new book entitled Extraterrestrials Congregate. I have the privilege of working with acclaimed artist and prize-winning illustrator Eva Folks, and we already have an amazing cover for our book!
My poem that accompanies Eva’s cover was published in Spaceports and Spidersilk, a print magazine (October, 2023, page 39). This magazine, as described by Poet’s Market, prints “fantasy, science fiction, sword and sorcery and speculative poetry.” The Spaceports and Spidersilk website elaborates that it prints what “will help encourage the younger generation to read . . . and to dream, especially about going to the stars.” What an exciting objective as we ponder our children’s future!
Trogdabogian Dyson Spheres
Trogdabogians, bipedal amphibians,
Lifespan a million years,
In aim to travel galaxies
Have built gigantic spheres.
Each sphere is larger than a sun,
Each holds a sun within.
As one the sun and Dyson ship
Through space together spin,
Locked in a magnetogravitic field
Together, and never undone.
Bypassing wormholes, the ships enfold space,
Bilocating spaceship and sun.
Trogdabogian Dyson spheres are
Vessels for suns, and their plan
Is to forge to the end of the universe
Where they countless far galaxies span.
Corey Elizabeth JacksonAs I prepare for my next literary adventure, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to you all, my loyal monthly subscribers. You have given me invaluable support on my first mind-bending foray into the riveting and at times rocky realm of publishing with Amazon books. Thank you, one and all!