“The grave will be my last home.”
As festival organizer Mike Medeiros read the line from Emily Dickinson’s letters, it perfectly fit the atmosphere of the group gathered around her final resting place.
The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA kicked off its annual Amherst Poetry Festival on Sept. 19 with its “Doughnuts and Death: A Baker’s Dozen of Emily Dickinson’s Most Depressing Poems” at the West Cemetery. Her most depressing poems include “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death.”
The Museum seeks to maintain the memory of Emily Dickinson, who resided in Amherst with her family during the nineteenth century. Their annual Poetry Festival aims to honor the works and lives of contemporary and past poets from the Pioneer Valley. The festival featured events such as the Slam Poetry Contest, the Emily Dickinson Poetry Discussion Group and a poetry reading with award-winning poets Adrian Matejka and Paisley Rekdal in Emily Dickinson’s garden.
Doughnuts and Death was a celebration and retelling of Emily Dickinson’s time in Amherst. Lit only by the dim lamps by the outskirts of the cemetery and the half September moon, Emily Dickinson fans, poetry lovers and enthusiasts of other worldly spirits gathered at the last resting place of the poet and her loved ones. A mass of adults, families and college students banded together behind Medeiros to be led through the cemetery.
Listeners began in front of the mural facing the cemetery. The painted images of Emily Dickinson, her home and her father stared back at the listeners as stories were told of Emily Dickinson, her family and her youth, and the sky darkened into night.
Walking around the cemetery and eating apple cider donuts and barely able to see one step ahead, listeners learned about the history of Emily Dickinson in Amherst as well as poetry by her and related poets, such as Emily Bronte, whose work Emily Dickinson enjoyed. While her poems were read, everyone stood silent on the soft grass above the dead. The only sounds heard were the words of her poems and the crickets in the nighttime as listeners stood in the midst of the gravestones of her peers.
“It was fun with a large group, lighthearted with beautiful poems” said one listener who only learned about the event after visiting the Emily Dickinson Museum a few weeks before.
“I enjoyed walking through a cemetery, learning about the local history and being confronted with what is going to happen,” commented one woman, who participated with many of her friends.
She was not the only one who travelled to listen to the words of Emily Dickinson. Another pair had driven up from Hartford to learn more about Emily Dickinson from the tour as fans of poetry.
One couple also stated that they felt “it [was] a beautiful night to be out in a graveyard” and described the tour as “funny and interesting.”
However as Mederios warned, “It’s serious, no jokes, eat your donuts.”
