Soliloquy of the Bookcase

I might be the mere skeleton of a pine
with wood the shade of wet sand,
the whorls in my grain like flames.
I might wear the armour of a knight,
be small scaffolding filled with dreams.
Sometimes, you overload me,
and weighed down like a mule,
I'm all aching limbs. Still,
I sustain the words in which you
take solace on those winter nights.
Nectar of scholars, I hold ideas -
in the future, I may distill the concepts
of science not discovered this millenia.
I reflect a rainbow of subjects
but I'm only the stem not the stamen.
I am the last resting place
of the drunken, desolate poet
but I am not a heartbeat in ink.
I am the grave, see my lacing of crosses,
each a deathplace of eternal life.
I could hold the words of the world,
a thousand secrets and sentences,
if you let me.Some of you, bury
your sons untended in my valleys
for decades, I never forget them.
I am father to your orphans,
the unloved and lost,
the used and abused, the torn to bits.
I stand broad shouldered to heaven,
like Atlas, I hold your world.

Reviews

[arbitrary jane]

ah, the things we hold. living bookshelves. storing words, ideas, loves, memories, dreamings and ... for some... the world.

[SpokenWord]

This is about much more than a book case and yet all these qualities are in a book case. Like most things we take this for granite and we assume those words will always be available to us to read and enjoy when we want too. Your poetry is just fantastic I love reading your work.

[FJ Davis]

Wow!--what could you do with an actual book?
This is a form of magic, a magic that is much needed. The poet has a profoundly perceptive mind--and expertly brings that rare vision to her work.
Very well done, Sel.

[Ed Hart]

you enter the poem quietly, a mere skeleton of pine, and you grow throughout, exiting an atlas supporting the world...that's quite something, letting yourself emerge like that

[MAC]

oh wow is this excellent. this reminds me of past events and i thank you for that. almost forgot how happy i use to be. incredible idea that is well written out!

[Bertie]

It's very elemental...Your extraordinary personification of such an ordinary object is stunning, you've given it a rather grand, intellectual character rather than humble which I expected, which made it thoroughly enjoyable.
Another fantastic write
Well done

[Emily B]

so magical, the pure and perfect magic that is only yours

[Robin]

Magical Sel , I turn and peer upon my own bookshelves and feel time slip away as memories swell in my mind and heart ..