Dilapidation’s processes are organized Decays

alexwh
American Poet Emily Dickinson
3 min readAug 31, 2019
English Rose, Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’ 30 August 2019 — Scanograph — Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

It is almost the last day of August. Tomorrow is my 77th birthday. Birthdays to me are melancholic events in which I remember my youth in Buenos Aires and the birthday parties (I hated them) that my parents organized for me in our long and narrow garden. The previous day was the day of St. Rose of Lima and it was notorious that on her feast day there was something called La Tormenta de Santa Rosa. But I don’t think that any of my birthdays were spoiled by rain.

Birthdays are melancholic because so many of those friends, cousins and of course my parents are all gone. I reflect on my birthday, always, the diminishing returns of all those that I once loved.

When I saw this pristine English Rose, Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’ surrounded by decaying blooms I knew I had to scan them. And when I note anything that is past its best (me in particular) there is only one poem that fits the bill.

Crumbling is not an instant’s Act

A fundamental pause

Dilapidation’s processes

Are organized Decays —

’Tis first a Cobweb on the Soul

A Cuticle of Dust

A Borer in the Axis

An Elemental Rust —

Ruin is formal — Devil’s work

Consecutive and slow —

Fail in an instant, no man did

Slipping — is Crashe’s law —

Emily Dickinson

More Emily Dickinson

I find my feet have further goals

A melancholy of a waning summer
Just as green and as white
It’s full as opera
I cannot dance upon my Toes
a door just opened on the street
Amber slips away
Sleep
When August burning low
Pink Small and punctual
A slash of blue
I cannot dance upon my toes
Ah little rose
For hold them, blue to blue

The colour of the grave is green

Its temple stands, alway,

The Woman in white

Her Grace is not all she has

To know if any human eyes were near
Linda Melsted — the music of the violin does not emerge alone
The Charm invests her face
A sepal, a petal and a thorn
The Savior must have been a docile Gentleman
T were blessed to have seen
There is no frigate like a book
I pay in satin cash

Emily Dickinson’s White Dress & a Hunter of Lost Souls

El vestido blanco — The White Dress
Water makes many beds
The viola da gamba
But sequence ravelled out of reach
A parasol is the umbrella’s daughter
Without the power to die
Lessons on the piny
Ample make this bed
How happy is the little stone

Sleep is supposed to be
The shutting of the eye
I dwell in possibility
when Sappho was a living girl
In a library
A light exists in spring
The lady dare not lift her veil
I took my power in my hand
I find my feet have further goals
I cannot dance upon my toes
The Music of the Violin does not emerge alone
Red Blaze
He touched me, so I live to know
Rear Window- The Entering Takes Away
Said Death to Passion
We Wear the Mask That Grins And Lies
It was not death for I stood alone
The Music in the Violin Does Not Emerge Alone
I tend my flowers for thee
Lavinia Norcross Dickinson
Pray gather me anemone!
Ample make her bed
His caravan of red
Me-come! My dazzled face
Develops pearl and weed
But peers beyond her mesh
Surgeons must be very careful
Water is taught by thirst
I could not prove that years had feet
April played her fiddle
A violin in Baize replaced
I think the longest hour
The spirit lasts
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Link to: Dilapidation’s processes Are organized Decays

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alexwh
American Poet Emily Dickinson

Into Bunny Watson. I am a Vancouver-based magazine photographer/writer. I have a popular daily blog which can be found at:http://t.co/yf6BbOIQ alexwh@telus.net