The Word

It’s only a week since I raised my head

From the depths of my favourite book,

The final tale in my library

And my basic foundations shook.

It had been so long since the world went wrong

And I fled from the things I heard,

To hide my head with the living dead,

And lose myself in The Word.

 

For the printed word is a friend of mine

Its sentiments never change,

It’s comforting when you read a rhyme

That no-one can rearrange.

No matter how many have read it once

The story will still suffice,

You know that the ending will be the same

When you come back to read it twice.

 

But the world outside, it seems had died

With its people all grown cold,

There was nothing left I could recognise

From the world that I’d left of old.

There wasn’t a smile on a single face

Or a humorous moment left,

There seemed a general loss of grace

With everything so correct.

 

The money hangs from the tallest tree,

Too high for us all to climb,

This world is new, belongs to the few

It certainly isn’t mine.

Another stabbing, another death

Is all that I read out here,

And populations take to the boats

As millions live in fear.

 

Small wonder then, I wander the streets

To look for a library,

In the search for a book I’ve never read

On the way that it used to be.

A former time when the world was mine

I’ll find it, by hook or crook,

For distant smiles and a woman’s wiles

I’ll bury my head in a book.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Barbz]

"In olden days a hint of stocking was looked on as something shocking....Now, Heaven knows, Anything Goes"..Yes, this world has changed....Seems that those olden times were stolen from us and replaced by greed, crime, fear and large egos. Ironically, The Book says it all! The majority are looking at a cell phone while you are searching for The Book that we all never read. When and If you find it, Master, let us all know, in your flawless perfection........Barbz

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Ah yes, the love of just reading a book versus reading online...great read David.

[Terrence Chang]

The word for you Mr David and that is "Magnificent".

[MomzillaNC]

A poignant and cogent commentary on what seems to be the current state of the world. Seems we’re all just slaves in this corporate feudalism. They’re even trying to take away our books… whether they shoot the knowledge seeker, as with Malala Yousafzai, or inundate us with their propaganda of disinformation. This one is brilliant and, to me, really quite painful to contemplate.

[Vishuddha]

My, my. You have gotten very serious in your old age! A magnificent read!!!

[Avinash]

I see the pain of living in a time which has gone strange. We are slaves of technology, married to smart phones and using every crazy gadget and have forgotten the most important thing...experience life. Probably the books are the only way as they say stories of those who really had a life.

[Lyndy]

I like this poem about the pleasure of reading. It's really well written! :D

[B]

Lovely poem
The world has changed so much
And one can ponder
is it all for the best ??

It changes regardless of us
So we find peace in the words spoken to be

A graceful book with a cup of tea

[Devanshu Rajput]

"Change is the law of universe"

The worlds is changing every now and then. With the change in the world, there also has been a change in what people call relationships. Who knows in coming future, the words like 'humanity' and 'compassion' become redundant? People are going to forget the meanings of those words.

I liked that money tree. It is the root of all the problems of the world. Money is just another plague. Which puffs a person with greed and transforms a human into a devil, a devil with no bounds.

A book is a nice escape from all this misery. Whenever that time comes,I will do as same as you. Bury myself in a book.

I hope you never change and carry on to write this sort of poems, so that a person like me is always with a reason to be alive.

The couplet is a gift from me for you:-

"A poet like him in world no one can get
His name is Mr. David Lewis Paget"

I know this is not a good couplet, but please accept it, it's from the core of my heart.

Cheers,
Devanshu

[Valentine]

Oh how I agree with you on this write. Few read any more, they wait for the movie to come out. They seems to be taking all of the good things out of the schools now. Use a calculator, no need to study math. No cursive writing, soon no one will be able to sign a signature on anything. I pray we are not heading to the mark of the beast. Valentine

[Confuser]

David: I loved it, just perfect and the nostalgia of if makes me smile. Amazing flow with an ominous, sad content reflecting changes in our world but much more. Society has overlooked the simple things, I see why we read; the media is full of shock and sorrows - the world isn't the same. Yea, give me a good read any old day. It's another beautiful poem, David. The visualization is wonderful...the images flow, of you seeking that book, distancing yourself from this mad world, but we are here. Loved that money tree too, all the lines are great...greed seems to rule, so sad. Thank you so very much! Dale