Last fall, Tim and I journeyed east, and I was able to fulfill a long-held dream of visiting the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachussetts. Comprised of two houses–the Homestead, where Dickinson lived all her life, and the Evergreens, built by her brother, Austin, for his family, connected by shady gardens, this small plot of ground is very near to the graveyard where Dickinson is buried. Collectively, these rooted structures comprise a portal that allows the visitor to time travel back more than a century and to understand how one American poet’s vision of eternal verities were grounded in a particular time and place.

At the museum shop, I purchased two delightful postcards (above) depicting Emily Dickinson with whimsy and vibrant color, and they are now always out where I can see them, near a photograph Tim took of Julia and me so long ago it seems like a different age.

Today’s poem, “Shade Garden,” arose from my thinking about that journey, about the protection shade can offer against prying eyes, and also about the covert humor extant in the word play of so many of Dickinson’s poems.

Below are a few images of the autumnal 2025 trip to Amherst.

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE