Patrons get earful of Emily Dickinson poems

Shannon Dunbar just wanted to buy his supplies and get back to work on his plumbing.

But the coverall-wearing Wheatland resident would not be able to do so until he was subjected to a random act of poetry.

"Emily 180," a fundraising event and celebration of what would have been poet Emily Dickinson's 180th birthday, was under way. There was no escaping, even at the Ace Hardware store in Wheatland.

"The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee; A clover, any time, to him is aristocracy," Ace employee Pete Empey recited aloud from an index card.

He directed the words at Dunbar, who looked as if he was waiting for a root canal to end.

"OK, you're done," said Empey, patting his victim on the shoulder and sending him off to the cashier.

"I didn't understand a (expletive) word you said," Dunbar told him.

Friday's all-day poetry reading event raised money for the Yuba County Library.

Volunteers were sponsored by businesses and individual donors to read 180 Dickinson poems all over the county.

The event, staged by the Friends of the Packard Library of Yuba County, culminated in an evening program of poetry and music at the Arts Council Theatre in Marysville.

G. Michael Paine, one of the assigned readers, ambushed the 7 a.m. breakfast crowd at Duke's Diner in Olivehurst.

Unfortunately, most within earshot were involved in conversation, and Paine spoke in a voice that was little more than a whisper.

"I'm hard of hearing. I can't hear nothing," said Frank Duncan, 76, afterward.

Paine handed out yellow slips of paper that explained the Emily Dickinson event.

"It says I just heard a poem," said Mark Roman, 50, who sat at the end of the counter wearing a puzzled look.

Roman said he hadn't heard poetry read aloud since he tried to impress a date 25 years ago by taking her to a coffee house in San Francisco.

"You have to say, 'Oh yeah, that's really good,'" he said in his most convincing voice. "That's culture for you."

Both Duncan and Roman said poetry had been read aloud to them by family members when they were children, and that they had found it comforting.

"I used to write poetry myself," said Duncan. "But it wasn't the kind you could publish."

CONTACT reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com .