THERE IS NO FRIGATE LIKE A BOOK (1286)
by Emily Dickinson ( source, the poetry foundation post)
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us lands away
Nor any coursers like a Page
of Prancing Poetry-
This Traverse the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll-
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul-
Courage is one of my primary ingredients I need to be decisive. A decision requires me to be silent. Many years before I decided to allow silence to be part of my day, I missed the better part of most days. The silence I refer to here is not the process of preparing to meditate. Not the stillness that is part of that silence before meditation. No, not that silence. The silence I refer to here is a personal silence that has allowed me to share with myself any words that I might read or hear that instigates me to question and understand myself more expansively than I did the moment before said words were introduced to me..
An early decision I made was to allow Emily Dickinson’s poem There is no Frigate like a Book to settle on me. By settle I mean I had to read this poem many times over the years before I began to focus on the last line, That bears the Human Soul. Here was a person who shared with herself in her writings many words of subject matter she might have viewed from her bedroom window of her Amherst home. Her other stimuli and keys to happiness apparently were her readings. Her Frigate, a book. Her book-traveling companion, her soul. Emily Dickinson had such courage to allow herself to be connected to all around her in a way that made her think deeply and express what she understood in a phrase that turned the subject over and over in her mind’s eye. Her reflections were then created on paper for her to see alone, many years before her written words publicly settled on us.
Today I have many frigates that were not available to Emily in the 1800’s. I travel on technology information both visual and audio. These frigates afford me the opportunity to see more and more of my world. Careful I say to myself as I quiet down to settle on the moment at hand. Don’t forget your first frigate, your book!
Thank you for reading.
Mark