At the Colony: Day 25 and a Fond Farewell

Day 25: We had our last group event today, a tour of the Millay estate. We learned that Vincent (Edna St. Vincent Millay) had rules. If you wandered into the pool area, you best be nude. No exceptions. She also moved her husband to his own suite of room to accommodate her lover in her bedroom. Oh Vincent, you were a complicated woman! Her husband, Eugen, addicted himself to morphine, so that he could help Vincent ween off the drug. Love or stupidity, who am I to judge? 

Tonight was our last meal together. We drank wine, hard apple cider, and beer together. We wrote in the Colony journal and left a sweet group thank you note to the administration, chef, and housekeeper. We were a good, relaxed group. I was grateful for the luxury of time to write, think, read, ponder, drive myself crazy, then reward myself with good company.

I was leaving with two-thirds of a novel written. Best of all, I looked forward to reuniting with Joe, my love and life.

“I screamed, and—lo!—Infinity
Came down and settled over me;
Forced back my scream into my chest,
Bent back my arm upon my breast,
And, pressing of the Undefined
The definition on my mind,
Held up before my eyes a glass
Through which my shrinking sight did pass
Until it seemed I must behold
Immensity made manifold;
Whispered to me a word whose sound
Deafened the air for worlds around,
And brought unmuffled to my ears
The gossiping of friendly spheres,
The creaking of the tented sky,
The ticking of Eternity.”
–from “Renascence,” Edna St. Vincent Millay.

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