Messy Gardener

I put up some photos on my garden blog taken earlier today. The plants were an inspiration to think positive thoughts tonight.  :-)

Pagan Sphinx Photo

Happy Mother's Day

To all my blog friends who are mothers, have a lovely, fulfilling day with your loved ones.

A Little Madness in the Spring

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!  

~~Emily Dickinson

For several years now,every April during my spring vacation I visit Emily Dickinson's garden at The Homestead. Emily is my neighbor to the southeast, less than a half hour's drive from where I live. This is one of my top favorite places in Western Massachusetts.

 Since childhood I've been fascinated by The Belle of Amherst. Her reclusiveness has been speculated upon by all manner of scholars, some of whom have made it their entire life's work to study her poems and letters, in an effort to understand who she really was.

A very private person, obviously. By her own instructions, her letters were burned after her death by her younger sister Lavinia, who while doing so, came upon a box of 1700 of Emily's poems. During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson felt uneasy about publishing her very personal and highly passionate writing. Perhaps she felt secure that her tiny bundles of poems, sewed together into little books, would one day be discovered and found to have merit.

I've always entertained a suspicion that Emily's reclusiveness was not a result of serious mental illness as was once highly speculated. The old stereotype of her as a frail, perhaps frigid spinster have more recently given way to a view of Emily much more after my own heart!  In thinking of someone like Dickinson, we assume that she was like a little mouse, never speaking to anyone, holing up in her upstairs bedroom to write, paranoid that anyone was watching her. In fact, Emily interacted fully with her own family, having close relationships with both her siblings and an adoration of her nieces and nephews. She tended the family garden and baked the family bread daily. Eccentric, yes. Yet busy and productive, with a sharpness of mind that is one of the trademarks of her poetry.

That her poems reveal, at times, a smoldering physical passion is obvious. Her relationship with God and religion  tentative and questioning, she was most comfortable worshiping nature in her garden. Her father and brother Austin, prominent citizens of Amherst, helped to found the Congregational Church, just across the street from the Dickinson home. Emily never stepped foot inside of it.

"I feel that the world holds a predominant place in my affections. I do not feel that I could give up all for Christ, were I called to die" (L13)

 I have not gone into a full biography, as others have done a much better job of it than I could possibly. For everything that is known about Emily, please visit The Homestead website, linked above. For many things speculated and invented, read Jerome Charyn's delightful novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson.

Here some more photos of Emily's garden in April, 2011. If you visit last year's post on this subject, you will notice a difference in how the garden is blooming. Spring is here, albeit somewhat delayed.

Scilla

Spring comes on the World—
I sight the Aprils—
Hueless to me until thou come
As, till the Bee
Blossoms stand negative
Touched to Conditions
By a Hum. 

~~Emily Dickinson

 

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!

 The path from the Dickinson Homestead to The Evergreens, Austin and Susan Dickinson's home.

Magnolia

Hyacinth

 

 

Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile - the Winds -
To a Heart in port -
Done with the Compass -
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden -
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor - Tonight -
In Thee!

Linking to That's My World

Picture for One Moment

Saturday was brisk and windy but beautifully sunny. The-future-Mr.-Pagan-Sphinx (that's a nod to the style of hyphening one's name with one's spouse, era ;-) and I decided we had to go to the bulb show at Smith College Botanical Garden, as it was the last weekend before they closed up the bulb display for the season. We figured the last day would be less crowded but we were wrong. The place was busier than I've ever seen it on any weekend I attended this event in the past. The botanical garden is a small jewel among the laid-back, but busy pace of Northampton. And the view from of the lake from the knoll the greenhouse sits upon, is western Mass at its relaxed best. If you live in western Mass and you don't love Northampton, you have no heart!  :-D

Because it was so crowded, it was hard to take decent photos, let alone get any stand-outs. This is my humble photo offering from the bulb show, which I hope you will enjoy. For some photos of this bulb show that will really knock your socks off, go visit my dear friend The Cunning Runt at Little Bang Theory.  (for those of you who don't know him, CR is The Girls' Dad and my western Massachusetts neighbor to the west, not to mention my blog buddy.  (hi, guy).    :-)  

 

The Girls (and then there are three more girls, besides  ;)

As I look out the window my desk faces at home, a mixture of snow and freezing rain is turning to just rain. It's been coming down since around 9:30 this morning. I'm glad I had a chance to get some color and warmth on Saturday at Smith.  On this first day of the vernal equinox, I wish you....well...better weather than what we're getting around here today! But also love, peace and groovy things.

Pagan Sphinx

Linking to That's My World Tuesday

(fantastic folks from around the world gather in these places virtually to celebrate the beauty and interest that surround us through photos and other creative media)

Artist Birthdays in March

 It's artist birthday remembrance for March!

Van Gogh has a birthday coming up March 30 and surely by then I can start thinking if not of Irises just yet, at least of a crocus or two. 

A long before Van Gogh but on the same day,  Francisco de Goya was born in 1746.

March 6 was the birthday of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni ((6 March 1475 – 18 February).

American photographer Diane (Nemerov) Arbus was born on March 14, 1923 and died in 1971, in New York City.

Diane Arbus

Self-Portrait

March 7 was American modernist painter Milton Avery's birthday, born in 1885 in Sand Bank, New York

Self-Portrait

On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

 Georgia O'Keeffe
American

Happy Birthday Henri Matisse ( December 31, 1869-November 3, 1954)

 Self-Portrait

 December 31, 1869-November 3, 1954

 Henri Matisse

 

"If I trust my drawing hand it is because in training it to serve me, I forced myself never to let it take precedence over my feelings."   ~ Henri Matisse

Sources:

Davis Art Education Catalog

Matisse:  Life and Painting

Art Knowledge News

Happy Birthday Ms. Georgia O'Keeffe

November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986

American Artist 

Blogging lite today, my friends...blogging light.  ;-) 


All the love,
Pagan Sphinx

All the Memes (A lot, anyway)

Hello and welcome to the Pagan Sphinx blog, from which I will be launching my entry to a handful of photo memes I like to participate in. Mainly I post my photos to the Pagan's Eye, as TPS is mostly an art blog. But every once in a while I get a wild hare and switch things around a bit. I thought it would be nice to show my Pagan Sphinx visitors a slice of my surroundings, if they don't usually visit the Pagan's Eye Photo Blog. (Though you should check the haunted house in my neighborhood). 


For those who are not familiar with them, a meme, in this case, is a photo sharing game between bloggers, usually around a specific theme and posted weekly on a consistent day. I'm combining themes in one post:  Sky Watch, Water Wednesday, Yard Art and My World.  Most of these are international and it's always a blast to see other people's lives, their skies, their water and views. 


At the end of the post, all the memes will be linked to their respective sites, should you choose to wander over and see for yourself the gorgeous photographs that people post from around the globe.


Below are some recent shots I took in my front yard in western Massachusetts, on a quiet street with lots of trees and mostly well-preserved houses built in the early 1950's. Our house is across the road from a clearing that shows off a panoramic view of the Connecticut River Valley. I'm not sure that I can ever completely leave this river valley home, despite the harsh winters. 

Have a great weekend.

Peace and love,

Pagan Sphinx 

The same view as above, but from a lot further back. We put up the plastic skeleton every year and the red object in the tree is a birdhouse we bought in Nova Scotia this summer.

And my mums and gourds to keep me company.  ;-)

Pagan Sphinx Photo © All Rights Reserved

SKY WATCH

TODAY'S FLOWERS

WATERY WEDNESDAY

SOOC and Macro Monday

Dahlia

at Lisa's Chaos

SOOC

at Murrieta 365

Today's Flowers

The Dahlia

All of these images were taken at the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, on the Deerfield River on September 5.
Once an abandoned trolley bridge, it has been turned into a garden path and maintained for 80 years.

Today's Flowers

 

 

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Lisa's Chaos

Emily Dickinson - Pagan Sphinx and Linking to Today's Flowers

Those of you who know me a lot or a little or who read here a lot or a little, are aware that I have a thing for Emily Dickinson - her life, her poems and her home turned museum in Amherst, part of my Western Massachusetts stomping ground.

The title of the blog The Pagan Sphinx was actually inspired by an article I read online by a certain Gary Sloan, a literature professor somewhere I don't recall. The topic of the article is Emily Dickinson's views on religion and faith, as known through her poetry and letters. The only items we "know" Emily at all by. The conclusion of the article is that Emily died somewhat of a pagan, having gone back and forth in her mind, throughout her adult life doubting the existence of god.

"Faith" is a fine invention, when gentlemen can see
But microscopes are prudent, in an emergency.-- Emily Dickinson, "Faith" (ca. 1860), quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief

I am one who continues to think about issues of faith and doubt. I sometimes feel a quick pull toward something slightly akin to faith but just as quickly, I am snatched away by my thoughts of both joy and despair and by matters that need my direct and immediate attention. For example, what is happening with my family. Looking after WP, four daughters, an in-law, and a boyfriend or two (of the girls'  :-), a few other family members as well as a couple of close friends. I try to get back to that place that I know makes me a better person.

I was almost persuaded to be a Christian. I thought I never again could be thoughtless and worldly. But I soon forgot my morning prayer or else it was irksome to me. One by one my old habits returned and I cared less for religion than ever.
-- Emily Dickinson, at age 15, shortly after a Christian revival in her home town of Amherst, Massachusetts, in a letter to her friend Abiah Root, quoted from Gary Sloan, "Emily Dickinson: Pagan Sphinx," Positive Atheism (June, 2001)

On subjects of which we know nothing, we both believe and disbelieve a hundred times an hour, which keeps believing nimble.
-- Emily Dickinson, quoted from Gary Sloan, "Emily Dickinson: Pagan Sphinx," Positive Atheism (June, 2001)

This last visit to Emily's garden was made on a very hot and humid Amherst, Massachusetts afternoon. I don't usually do the audio tour, though I made a mental note that next time I would, to see how it is compiled. There were several people around the garden with the audio and I just snapped away at the phlox and cone flowers, the snapdragons and a couple of elegant orchids.

Those who lift their hats shall see Nature as devout do God.
-- Emily Dickinson

Those who lift their hats shall see Nature as devout do God.
-- Emily Dickinson, more naturalism or pantheism, quoted from Gary Sloan, "Emily Dickinson: Pagan Sphinx," Positive Atheism (June, 2001)

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
-- Emily Dickinson (attributed: source unknown)

Credits:

Positive Atheism's Emily Dickinson Quotations

Emily Dickinson:  Pagan Sphinx by Gary Sloan

Eclectica Magazine

Today's Flowers