I know it’s perhaps futile, yet I can’t help but wonder how Emily Dickinson would handle being alive in 2026. What would she make of all that vies for our attention and how we spend our time? How would she dance with all the stimulation and barrage of information that descends on us 24/7? Maybe she would post and thrive? It’s true that many of her poems often fit on one IG slide. Maybe she would still choose a fully introverted life and thrive on obscurity. When I look at young people today, man

I’ve loved the poetry of Emily Dickinson from my teens and I could tell you why or I could spend an age trying to tell you why, without success. Last month I read a slim Dickinson biography by another poet, Christian Bobin’s ‘The Lady In White’. I felt so moved, transported back into her life in Amherst and to the places in between night and day from where she drew her deep magic, so inspired by Bobin’s love and impossible kinship with Emily that I wanted to write my own devotion. I give you, ‘E