I am a lover of lists.  I like to make them.  And I like to read those that others have made.  Over the last few weeks I have spent time with several different lists that offered questions for reflection on the past year.  I am sharing here my response to one of these questions.

What was the best book you read, show or movie you watched, or podcast you listened to?

I have not yet jumped onto the podcast bandwagon, mostly because I still prefer the written word to the spoken word.  For this same reason, I don’t listen to audio books.  I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies.  I do read a lot of books.  So, my initial thought was, of all of the books that I have read during 2022, how am I going to pick “the best?”  The process turned out to be way more complicated than I thought.

Early in 2022 I read the following poem by Emily Dickinson.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

 

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –

And sore must be the storm –

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm –

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –

And on the strangest Sea –

Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

-Emily Dickinson

I don’t remember where I read it or what I was doing that led me to it.  What I do remember is that it spoke to me in a profound way.  Probably because hope is something that has been hard for me to hold on to amidst all of that is going on in the world.  Dickinson’s words made me feel like hope may not be as elusive as I thought.

Since first reading the poetry of Emily Dickinson in high school, I have been intrigued by her words, but I never made the time to study her life or her work in depth.  Because of the way the above poem moved me, I decided that 2022 was the year that I was going to get to know Emily Dickinson a little bit better.  I probably should have started by reading what is presumed to be the definitive biography of Dickinson, Roger Lundin’s Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief, but I didn’t.  Instead I turned to The Belle of Amherst, a one woman play, which opened on Broadway in 1976 starring Julie Harris, who won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a play for her portrayal of Dickinson.  Like any creative endeavor, scholars criticized the playwright, William Luce, for his depiction of Dickinson.  I found a PBS recording of the entire production on You Tube.  (I’m just now discovering how much “good stuff” is out there on You Tube!). If by some chance you are interested, here’s is the link to The Belle of Amherst.  Watching it is a well-spent hour and twenty-eight minutes. 

Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems serve as dialogue in this production.  Hearing them left me wanting to read more.  I ordered a copy of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, and made it a 2022 goal to read all, nearly 1800, of Emily Dickimson’s poems.  I began reading chronologically, which made sense since I had at least a superficial time line of what was happening in her life, but as time went on, I found myself picking up the book and randomly opening to pages, reading whatever happened to appear at that moment.  I suppose that reading this way became a sort of bibliotherapy, as we all bring to our reading our current mental station and lived experiences.  Because of this change in approach,  I’m not certain that I met my goal of reading every single poem.  Of what I am certain, however, is that many of the words written by Emily Dickinson that I did read are permanently etched in my heart and soul and have had a profound impact on my way of thinking and feeling.

Even once I dove deeply into Dickinson’s words, I still never reached for a scholarly biography.  I next turned to the Apple TV series entitled Dickinson.  

As I said earlier, I am not a big TV watcher so I was not even aware of this series until it was “done.”  Dickinson ran for three seasons, the first having been released in November of 2019 and the third in November of 2021.  I discovered it in May of 2022.  Not only am I not a TV watcher, I derfinitely am not a binge TV watcher.  That changed with this series.  I binge watched the first fifteen or so of the thirty episodes.  At the halfway point, I realized that I did not want it to be over so I limited myself to two episodes a night.  Even with that, Dickinson did not last long enough for me.

Dickinson is an artful marriage of history and fiction, comedy and drama, the nineteenth century and current times.  It’s juxtaposition of modern rap over the quiet life of a nineteenth century virtually unknown female poet and the political and social climate of that time can seem jarring at first, but as I continued to watch, I was struck by how little has changed in the world in nearly two centuries.

The Apple TV series, created by Alena Smith, focused on some different aspects of Emily’s life than did The Belle of Amherst, but the undercurrents in the two works of art were similar.  Together, they added depth and breadth to the woman whose life and works I so wanted to know and understand a little bit better.

All of that to finally answer the question:

What was the best book you read, show or movie you watched, or podcast you listened to?

My answer is Dickinson; but, had I not watched The Belle of Amherst and read The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, my response may have been very different.  Though this discussion may make it seem like coming to this conclusion was simple and straight-forward, it was not.  Thinking back to all that I had read, listened to, and watched throughout an entire year and naming a favorite was tough.  Everything I encounter impacts and changes me in some way.  Obviously some more so than others and some more positively than others.  Nonetheless, all experiences influence the person we become going forward.  

I will admit that I am quick to form opinions, usually trusting my initial gut reaction, but I am quite the opposite when it comes to making absolute choices.  Thus, it took me a great deal of time and thought to choose  “the one” book or movie that was “the best” of the year.  Ultimately I made that choice based on the realization that Dickinson had the strongest influence on who I am after having watched it.

“If I can stop one Heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one life from Aching

Or cool one Pain

 

Or help one fainting Robin

Unto his Nest again

I shall not live in Vain.”

-Emily Dickinson

And now I leave you with this same question, what was the best book you read, show or movie that you saw, or podcast that you listened to?  And more importantly, why?

Feel free to share your responses in the comments.