My uncle Emily

One day when we were in the garden,

choosing flowers for the table,

my Uncle Emily gave me a dead bee

and a poem for my teacher.

Sometimes Uncle Emily is like that,

as if she wants me to see the world

one samall bee

and one small poem

at a time…

This six-year-old has an uncle like no other! His uncle wears long white dresses and never smokes cigars. Gilbert’s uncle is none other than Emily Dickinson. Uncle Emily he calls her. And how he loves her. He knows that she writes poems about everything, even dead bees.

But it’s a poem about truth that, after a fracas in school, he remembers best. Tell all the Truth,? the poem begins. And, in finally admitting what went on that day, he learns something firsthand about her poetry, something about her, and a good deal about the importance of telling the truth, no matter how difficult it might be.