Saratoga Dispatch—or—The Various Joys of Summer Festivals

After this morning’s rehearsal with the New York City Ballet, I went for lunch to the 18th-century farmhouse where principal oboist, Randall Wolfgang stays. Not a right angle in the place, this funky old house stands deep in the woods. It is filled with books and shaded by a 300-year-old sugar maple. On a side table was the anthology, “The Treasury of American Poetry” compiled in 1978 by Nancy Sullivan. I sat on the back porch and read and dosed and felt the breeze, swatted some mosquitoes, and accepted the engulfing of green.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown—
Who ponders this tremendous scene—
This whole Experiment of Green—
As if it were his own!