JASON MCMANUS

Dear Candice Gorman:

I’m delighted to join in your poetry project and I’ve chosen as my favorite one by Emily Dickinson, which I sometimes recite by heart at difficult times. It, to me, is the affirmation of the power of human imagination and creativity, the ability not only to imagine words unseen but to empathize with people unknown, souls unmet — a different way of saying that none of us are islands, we all share the human experience.

With all best wishes,

I NEVER SAW A MOOR

I never saw a Moor —

I never saw the Sea —

Yet know I how the Heather looks

And what a Billow be.

I never spoke with God

Nor visited in Heaven —

Yet certain am I of the spot

As if the Checks were given —

— Emily Dickinson