A conversation with the past, present and future

I finally checked out Shadowplay Eterniday through Friends University interlibrary loan and found the shadowbox below pictured in the book. There's a good chance I could have seen it before, but I do not recall it...and I do tend to remember things like this.

Joseph Cornell Toward the Blue Peninsula (for Emily Dickinson). 1953.

Of course when I saw the shadowbox was dedicated to Emily Dickinson, I had to check out why. Long before Cornell, Emily Dickinson expressed her love and fear of living freely, as a spirit full of hopes and dreams (she calls this her "Blue Peninsula", see poem below).

Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

It might be lonelier Without the Loneliness— I'm so accustomed to my Fate— Perhaps the Other—Peace— Would interrupt the Dark— And crowd the little Room— Too scant—by Cubits—to contain The sacrament—of Him— I am not used to Hope— It might intrude upon— It's sweet parade—blaspheme the place— Ordained to Suffering— It might be easier To fail—with Land in sight— Than gain—my Blue Peninsula— To perish—of Delight—

Cornell is definitely responding to this poem with his shadowbox---he is allowing Dickenson (and others) to dream (the empty perch, the window sooo blue and full of hope), while anchoring that free spirit with a solid depiction of reality (there's actually more reality than dream depicted within the box walls). Below is my own bold response to Cornell and Dickenson. There is more dreaming (blue) and less anchoring (the antique lock). If you could look inside the square window of the lock you would find the contents of Cornell's box just as he left them. There is no glass front (open wide) separating the viewer from the possibility of the blue peninsula. The viewer is IN the dream, the hope. So is the Phos Hilaron bird. So is the Phos Hilaron bird. There is no land (yet) and the poetry lives on. This whole experience perfectly illustrates a large part of why I create. I create because it allows me to experience community and conversation with spirits of the past, present and future. Joseph Cornell: "The traveler abroad is dependent on outside things; he whose sight-seeing is inward can in himself find all he needs." Emily Dickinson: "To shut our eyes is Travel"