April 25

Today being April 25 I will dispense with our normal Barrett Browning letter and celebrate the birth of my Wonderful and Brave sister, Bronwen.

Bronwen is very un-Ba like in that she took the bull by the horns and wrestled him to the ground and kicked him in the butt. She did not wait for permission of dear Papa or MaMa. She did not need Perseus to save her. Her Andromeda slew the dragon and freed herself.

But she is Ba like in her intelligence, love, loyalty and wit. She has strong and moral opinions and she does not need to argue with anyone to try to convince them.

She is full of crafty notions and homemaking skills.

She is my best friend and is the one person in the world who I know loves me anyway. She is patient and funny and makes me laugh when I am going to cry. And almost drive off the road in joyous laughter at her ridiculousness.

She loves a good book on almost any subject. She made me interested in Sherlock Holmes many years ago! And now young Emma has her head buried in books as well.  

I don’t think that poetry is quite her thing, although she will read it for my sake.

For her I offer a poem from dear Emily Dickinson that expresses our shared love of books:

A PRECIOUS, mouldering pleasure ’t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,
His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.
His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;
What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty,
And Sophocles a man;
When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,
He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true:
He lived where dreams were born.
His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

And so God Bless you Sister, on your day of days. I love you very much. You are my girl.