Once All the Books are Gone!

They said that the Library was full,

Were going to pull it down,

They’d set up a whole new Google School

On the other side of town,

And nobody went there anymore,

It was bulging at the seams,

With every tome that had stood alone,

The source of a writer’s dreams.

 

‘What can we get from a paper book

That is not beyond a trace,

When just by tapping a couple of keys

We can pull it from cyberspace.’

They’d lost the sense of a cosy nook

On a languid day in June,

When curled up there with a thrilling book

They could drift and dream ‘til noon.

 

The Library was a silent place

With its soot-stained yellow brick,

It rose a couple of storeys, and

The air in there was thick,

The shelves rose up to the ceilings, more

Than twenty feet in the air,

You had to call a librarian

To climb up a sliding stair.

 

But up above there were volumes bound

In a red and gold Morroc,

Their wisdom gleaned from the ages in

A perfect printed book,

Though some had never been taken down,

Their pages were pristine,

They waited patiently there for me,

A world that I’d never seen.

 

They closed the Library down one day

And nobody even cared,

The lights went out for the final time

The cost of the power conserved,

A gloom then settled between the shelves

That had held the stuff of life,

The books, still patiently waiting with

Their sagas of joy and strife.

 

I broke on into the Library

Through a badly padlocked door,

Made my way with the aid of a torch

On up to the second floor,

The tension there was electric, I

Could sense them asking ‘Why?’

‘Why has the world deserted us,’

And the books let out a sigh.

 

I looked on up and I saw a book

And it seemed to freeze my gaze,

Glowing softly it shimmered there

In a pale, blue misty haze,

I reached on up and I took it down

Though it tingled in my hands,

My mind lit up like a picture book

Of far and distant lands.

 

I laid it down and it opened up,

‘The Book of the Universe,’

Then stars and planets poured out from what

I thought was an ancient hearse,

I heard some planetary music from

The deception that Neptune brings,

And floated up from the floor in there

Surrounded by Saturn’s rings.

 

Knowledge flowed from the book to me

Though I couldn’t catch it all,

It passed me by in a stream, just like

A glittering waterfall,

And then a voice in my head intoned

‘You can pass this message on,

You’ll never be able to smile again

Once all the books are gone!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[R Smith]

And there it is David, the end of civilization as we know it, I have been stopped from reading a book for years mainly due to the necessities of working life but I have no excuse, we all should stand for the revival of the library, revolution I say!! Another great poem David, you never let me down thank you :)

[TL Boehm]

You'll never be able to smile again once all the books are gone. I used to love to hang around in libraries, and still have this soft spot for the smell of a new book. I still don't own a Kindle.

[Avinash]

Disappearance of book is the final call for the Doomsday Flight to Ignorant Lands, where nobody will trust their wisdom but technology. It will reverse the human evolution of million years and we will be reduced to living entity open to the manipulation from those in power to control information. They say they are saving money, how can you save something which never really existed. Money is the most surreal thing controlling everyone's life.

[Colorado Brian]

David, as I read your poetry, I feel like I'm opening a gift. The layers of wrapping paper peal away as I read them from one verse to the next. Each poem you write is like a gift, waiting to be opened and enjoyed.

[Marie]

A great story--from a lament for a closed library to a magical book. I thin;k there will always be librarie as long as there are people who want the weight and feel of a book in their hands.

E-books, of course, don't take up a lot of space. I have two bookcases in the living room, two in the bedroom, and five in the back room. There is no longr space, and I am piling unread books on the floor...

[Sheila Kline]

Absolutely my favorite of all of your poems and I have many favorites among your literary genius creations!! To imagine a world without books is unfortunately not unthinkable and that is why it imparts such horror to read about it in detail as you have shared!! There was a time in ages past when works were routinely read and even sung but I would think there was too a written parchment or manuscript to accompany it. To think not truly defines sheer pandemonium!

I have business associates who choose not to email because they do not choose to be held to a "written word" and that imparts suspicion when a phone call that is not recorded replaces a written record........a little off the subject but it makes me think of not having a book to read!

This one is going in my favorite of favorites my friend!!!!!!!!!!

[Helen Crutchett]

Oh so very "Harry Pottyiesh David. Just adored the imagery jumping off the pages and floating around my head. A masterpiece for sure! LOVED IT!.......Helena :)

[MomzillaNC]

Wonderful poem. I hope there never comes a time, though, when we really do give up books. No device can ever take the place of curling up in that perfect, comfy chair in the just right spot… a cup of something steaming and wonderful… a book in your hands… the weight of it… the crackle of pages… the smell, all musty and earthy… the feel of the paper… holding that book and reading the lines on page after page after page… immersed in the story, lost in the pages of a book.