Cento of Emily Dickinson by Joe Ballard

I’m sorry for the dead- today- (258)
You cannot put a Fire out- (259)
But when the News be ripe- (334)
When Peace was far away- (362)
Upon the Floors of Fame- (467)
There is a strength in proving that it can be borne (501)
In keen and quivering ratio (58)

We dream- it is good we are dreaming- (259)
The Living, for the Stars- (674)
Is the unknown peninsula. (716)
The Pendulum begins to count- (314)
It will be Summer- eventually. (162)
Wolfe demanded during dying (336)
Touch lightly Nature’s sweet Guitar (596)
As Robins- Sire and Son (652)
Walk boldly up and knock- (693)
How they will tell the Story- (305)
As Players at the Keys (148)
Over and over, like a Tune- (174)
And when this world- sets further back- (300)
If it had no word, (433)
Lest any doubt that we are glad that they were born Today (516)

He is alive, this morning- (517)
Other Boys are “lost”- (644)
Even Nature herself- (581)
Would help him to conceal (666)
And doubt that you are mine- (204)
As Ankles of a Queen- (146)
Called Heaven- (112)
It intimates the finer want- (356)
For Greatness, that is ill at ease (388)
Is sorry, some, for me. (475)

How soft a caterpillar steps- (615)
In frantic melody! (466)
Have any like Myself (360)
Of unattempted Gauze (436)
Informed the hour had come (695)
Or other heights of Other Ones (362)
Had not Shakespeare wrote- (363)
On Time’s first Afternoon! (74)
Without a tighter breathing (460)
In all the deepest Sky (534)

As Twilight long begun, (642)
At least within my Tree (643)
The World- feels Dusty (351)
Gone- as soon as known- (368)
The first We knew of Him was Death- (466)
And that is His business- not Ours- (149)
Who influences Flowers- (186)
Whose hissing Corals part- and shut- (295)
His Mind were going blind- (484)
Your thoughts don’t have words every day (616)
Enough is One- (660)
As if my Soul were deaf and dumb- (282)
The Sun ran miles away (499)

God gave a Loaf to every Bird- (386)
Indifferent to Him- (334)
The most triumphant Bird I ever knew or met (554)
Then offered as a Butterfly (482)
Of the Poorest Bird (483)
That makes the Fences smile- (258)
If I could see you in a year, (249)
I deem that I- with but a Crumb- (386)
Empty the Hearts that purchased you- (588)
As if the Checks were given- (480)

It was a quiet way- (480)
It feels like Poverty (494)
I could not care- to gain (326)
And when Your little Lifetime failed, (312)
I noticed People disappeared (514)
And went or waited as they liked (558)
The long sigh of the Frog (587)
Precisely their necessity- (597)
Until they look around (630)
To thy reportless Grave- (670)
And could not value- Air? (139)

A giant- eye to eye with you, had been- (139)
A Favor so remote- (255)
We start- as if detected (269)
As Sleigh Bells seem in summer (458)
Is not Ours the chastising- (532)
How nullified the Meadow- (559)
Of Ecstasy’s impediment- (625)
I’d not believe it if I heard (682)
And I, bewildered, stand- (153)
At the Setting Sun- (106)
Sorrowful- as certain- (315)
That I stopped gauging- satisfied- (370)

In Their Eternal Faces (371)
For news that they be saved- (426)
When Excellence be dead (464)
Required a Blow as vast- (570)
And hearty- as a Rose- (571)
The flickering be seen (352)
Till when around a Height (482)
We both and neither prove- (547)
To flee from memory (546)
Crisis is sweet and yet the Heart (604)
Arraigns as it sings. (653)

We wear our sober Dresses when we die, (652)
They’ll recollect how cold I looked (416)
I know for I have tried (497)

JOE BALLARD