Voices from Inside

Do you remember hearing that silent voice deep inside of you.  The one that talks so often to no one else?  I know that I am not the only one that has the chat going on.  A complete life led in my very own head.  Some days are busy and you only hear it at times.  Other days the silence is so loud that if sounds as if it is roaring around and your shouting at the top of your lungs.  But the words never make it past your own ears.

I feel that is how life had to be for Emily Dickinson.  A voice that went on and on, playing out her life before her.  Not being realized or noticed by anyone around.  Days filled with longing of unfulfilled conversations.  And I wonder how many other lives are led just that way even now?  The difference?  Emily was able to write hers out.  In sweeping strokes, her pen traveled across the pages leaving poems behind.  Poems that make our heart yearn a lil more.  Where we recognize the hurt wing of a bird being the same flapping in our own hearts of love not realized.

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn has been my companion this last week.  I do have to say that even with my internet down I have been sitting in front of my computer.  I had this book downloaded in PDF form and it has been filling my head with words every day.  My heart has ached from the beginning where she realizes that a life led in quiet solitude still does not calm the soul.  Instead it is filled with dreams of a blue heart pierced by a red arrow marking the arm of a not so perfect desire. Jerome Charyn (born May 13, 1937) is an award-winning American author. In The Secret LIfe of Emily Dickinson he has made her life seem so akin to the voice we hear within.  With nearly 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.  I have to say, he says it best with his own voice.



Many have read Emily Dickinson's works.  Many have commented on what she meant.  But it seems that here from Jerome Charyn, Emily has a life that breaths.  This is one I would employ you to read.  I know that it has had my soul dancing and I love that dance inside.

Thanks once again to Nicole and Tribute Books for sharing.  I know this woman must know what is on my bedside table at night.  As always this is unpaid, I only receive the book.  And once again, as I love this book so, it is hard to read a PDF.  Folks I will have to say, nothing so far has been better than a page turner to be in your hands where you can turn the page.  Maybe because I am not one of the many kindle and ipad owners I do not understand an e-book.  But I love the printed word best.  If you choose you can follow Jerome on facebook and twitter as well as The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson on both, facebook and twitter too.  You can follow the blog tour from here and read what some other bloggers think.

4 comments:

  1. Lenore - wow, you absolutely nailed the tone of this book.

    "My heart has ached from the beginning where she realizes that a life led in quiet solitude still does not calm the soul."

    What a perfect summation of the inherent message of the book and in fact Emily's life.

    GREAT JOB!

    For all those who'd like to follow along on the book's blog tour, please visit http://thesecretlifeofemilydickinson.blogspot.com/

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  2. As always, I loved this post.
    I'm with you - I like that book in my hands.
    I put little pieces of paper between the pages I want to revisit. And in my art books, I highlight the parts that I'm trying to learn.
    Love modern technology, but some stuff, not so much.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  3. From one Lenore to another, thank you for this. It isn't often I use the word 'poetic' to describe a review, but your words suit Emily Dickinson's - they even rhyme: "akin to the voice within."
    Makes me want to read the novel - yet again.

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  4. Lenore -
    This book obviously made a huge impression on you and you describe it very eloquently.

    I actually read my pdf on my kindle and I'm wondering if I would have found it less frustrating if I'd been able to tell exactly where I was in the book (kindles have this really annoying habit of not giving page numbers).

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