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Title:       Dash
Date:        2023-04-22
Link:        https://spool-five.com/poetry/2023_apr22_dash/
Word Count:  427
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> Today’s prompt (optional, as always, and taken from our archives) is
> a variation on a teaching exercise that the poet Anne Boyer uses with
> students studying the work of Emily Dickinson. As you may know, although
> Dickinson is now considered one of the most original and finest poets
> the United States has produced, she was not recognized in her own time.
> One reason her poems took a while to gain a favorable reception is their
> slippery, dash-filled lines. Those dashes baffled her readers so much
> that the 1924 edition of her complete poems replaced some with commas,
> and did away with others completely. Today’s exercise asks you to do
> something similar, but in the interests of creativity, rather than
> ill-conceived “correction.” Find an Emily Dickinson poem – preferably
> one you’ve never previously read – and take out all the dashes and line
> breaks. Make it just one big block of prose. Now, rebreak the lines.
> Add words where you want. Take out some words. Make your own poem out
> of it! (Not sure where to find some Dickinson poems? You’ll find oodles
> at the bottom of this page).


I chose this poem by Dickenson for the prompt:

Before I got my eye put out –
I liked as well to see
As other creatures, that have eyes –
And know no other way –

But were it told to me, Today,
That I might have the Sky
For mine, I tell you that my Heart
Would split, for size of me –

The Meadows – mine –
The Mountains – mine –
All Forests – Stintless stars –
As much of noon, as I could take –
Between my finite eyes –

The Motions of the Dipping Birds –
The Morning’s Amber Road –
For mine – to look at when I liked,
The news would strike me dead –

So safer – guess – with just my soul
Opon the window pane
Where other creatures put their eyes –
Incautious – of the Sun –

And, after removing the dashes and changing a few words (lazily):


Before I got my heart,
I liked as well as other creatures,
that have eyes and know no other way

Today, that I might have the heart
I tell you that my Heart Would split,
for size of me

The Meadows, mine, The Mountains, mine
All Forests  Stintless stars
As much of you, as I could take

Between my finite heart
The Motions of the Dipping Birds
The Morning’s Amber Road

To take when I liked,
So safer with just my soul
the window pane
Where other creatures put their heart
Cautious of the Sun