Overheard from . . . Emily Dickinson

Our lives are Swiss, -
So still, so cool,
Till, some odd afternoon,
The Alps neglect their curtains,
And we look farther on.

Italy stands the other side,
While, like a guard between,
The solemn Alps,
The siren Alps,
Forever intervene!

I have been finding such inspiration and treasures of truth in the poems of Emily Dickinson which I began to re-read after the election. The miraculous thing about poetry is that the meaning of each poem is so personal as to be influenced by our own life experiences.

Obviously, with the release of MOLTO MAYHEM front and center in my brain, the word Italy jumped out at me and I read it with the perspective of my main character, Lucia who is striving on her own journey to traverse the cool Alps of her mind and let loose the Italian passion of her heart.

Read from my own perspective, rather than that of Lucia, however, I see a poem about conquering the formidable mental hurdles that get in the way of loosing my creativity. My calm, rational mind plays tricks... it says the effort is not worth the work... the risk of failure not worth the goal of completion. But for right now, standing on the other side of that decisive trek up the Alps of my own insecurities, and looking out over the amazing view from the heights, my heart knows it would not trade any second of writing, nor moment of editing, nor even the heavy lifting of publishing, for this chance to feel this intense light of sun on my face.

I hope all of your Journeys, especially the ones over the Alps, are inspired by love.
​Deanne