cleaning my inbox - just noticed the subject on this - do you know Emily Dickinson's strange poem that ends "practicing sands" (below) ? I took my domain name "gemtactics" from it. CatherinE
#320 We play at Paste -- Till qualified, for Pearl -- Then, drop the Paste -- And deem ourself a fool -- The Shapes -- though -- were similar -- And our new Hands Learned /Gem/-Tactics Practicing /Sands/ -- Harrison Jeff wrote:
I've sleeping for a book, — serenely desert, and I'm, with the sands, in sleep, and in sleep I'm sand how could anyone be ready for that verse tablet when sands and maids readily amaze, and on which side glint my Virginia triggers? the verse or the sands? do the sands — wait — 160,000 maidens in this desert pour their water-vases into the sands, saying "Appius Claudius, under your tutelage shine, this night, only these waters, & their abashed coolness, far beneath earth" do the sands favor the maidens, or the water far beneath their toes? were it daytime, would the maidens shine with the sands? with the sands piled upon my breast, I'll be repeated with each wave — with each long-lulled read through the verse tablet 160,000 maids water
