THE LIBRARY (thin places 4)

First grade, maybe, second, or third?

I’m not sure, but what a world of fantasy

I found in “The Five Chinese Brothers!”

I fell into their Rabbit Hole and never

looked for a way back out.

Enid Blyton, Willard Price, and Henry Gilbert

turned me into someone else. A soldier,

a merchant to distant stars, or always on an epic

adventure in jungles, and caves, or best of all,

Sherwood Forest where a part of me still lives.

The one in Pensacola where no one checked

to see why a kid was looking at adult fiction

me, lost in a guilty pleasure reading

The woman in the Red Dress, wondering if

anyone else knew what treasures lie hidden here.

In high school, I found Quo Vadis, The Robe,

Moby Dick, and how much I despise required reading

lists where short stories are made into novels because

publishers paid by the word. Such things are harpoons

in the joy of discovery and are why nobody reads.

The library in Sarasota has a magical stairway

that slants right as it goes up, so inside your head

a new dimension opens for the stuff they put in there.

You park in that chair by the window overlooking

the bay as you slide into some creator’s universe

of broken love and hard times.

In Tennessee, my library lets me borrow

audio books for free, so resistance is futile, and

I am always assimilated… in the car, in bed,

waiting for the doctor, even in the shower,

while a favorite character solves the murder.

In Christensen’s “Voyage of the Basset”

The professor needs to prove the value of the

Liberal Arts as the university closes all but

Math, Science, and technology. We are slaves 

to numbers, but the arts are required. We are 

human and larger on the inside than the outside.

Reviews

[AYVID N]

Dear Vol,

You had me at Enid Blyton. For all those wondering how I learnt English, it was she who gets the credit single handedly. This is such a magnificent tribute to the joy of reading. I'm a creature born and created to read. I relate heart, mind, soul to every joy you describe so fluently here. I assimilate it in bucketloads and truckloads. There is no greater joy than this. For me, books are next to God. Of course, how we process what we read is totally unique to each of us. Kudos!

[Vol]

Divya,
Thank you for iterating something I already knew... you write like a true reader, and it is no wonder we think so similarly.
And for about sixty years, I thought Enid Blyton was some obscure children's novelist and my own secret. Imagine my surprise when she turned up in a crossword puzzle I was working. Same with "The Five Chinese Brothers." It seems both were wildly popular among my favorite people....
Vol

[AYVID N]

Indeed, dear Vol. This writer changed the life of a very young girl, somewhere in an obscure district of India, long ago. You can imagine her reach and her power. Its so good to relate to your words and bond over this beautiful children's writer.
Cheers!

[robert harris jr]

very moving peace of writting powerful

[Starbaby]

A veritable treasure trove can be found at the library! Food for a fertile imagination, and the stuff to fuel dreams. I concur that the library is a most magical place, and this fine poem highlights that. What I don't understand, and perhaps what I find most ironic, is that in school? The library is where you get sent for detention. Hmmmn.
So be it. Flagellate me.

[Vol]

Starbaby,
Hahaha. I had a friend in Nashville flagellating bored rich people... And that's all I know about that.
I also used the library as a place to set my stuff up to study, but a few bored minutes later, I'd head to the student union so I could find someone to talk to.
And, of course, as a great source of adventure.

[M]

And those who enjoyed reading often make the best writers. Like you, I found great joy in reading and still do despite limitations on time and our world plunging into a technological maelstrom. It’s a simple pleasure and one that seems to be becoming extinct as our younger generations bow at the altar of the IPhone. So, I appreciate your words here and what this beautiful pastime means to you.

[Vol]

Makhabat,
Thank you for stopping by. More than a pastime, I did my first public reading in 1968. I love the complicated way poetry says impirtant things in so few words. I love the evocative imagery of lyric poetry. I love the hammer and anvil poetry uses to state the truth. I love the way poetry captures beauty... It is not my life, but it gives my life meaning.
Vol

[John Sullivan]

The magic of reading. I was a shy child, but we always had books lying around the house, and read everything I could get my hands on. Spent a lot of time at our neighborhood Borders.

[Vol]

John,
It has been my experience that those who read have a better perspective on everything than the Philistines who do not.
Vol

[John Sullivan]

Thank you for your thoughts