Here are some of the books in my family's library. But if I had a car, I would have gone to our wonderful library and taken a picture for you.What? You've never been to the Wauconda Area Public Library? What a shame. I do think, and I am not kidding, it's the best library in the area. Even the state. Perhaps even the whole of the USA.
I am not exaggerating.
I love our library. When we lived in Florida, I would walk into the library there, and long for the Wauconda Area Public Library. The DVD collection is awesome, the book collection even better. Plus staff who have been there so long I remember them from my childhood - and they remember me too. Interlibrary loans come so quickly, the childrens' library not only houses books, but puppets you can check out, toys for the childrens' amusement, and of course computers.
What makes it even better now than when I was a child - the summer reading program is for all ages. Imagine that! I, as an adult, can participate in a summer reading program. That was my most favorite thing as a child. I do believe I literally cried the summer they told me I was too old for the summer reading program at the library.
In honor of my library, public and personal, I offer my poem for Poetry Wednesday (which, fittingly, comes from my personal library of school books: all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth)
library
No need even
To take out
A book: only
Go inside
And savor
The heady
Dry breath of
Ink and paper,
Or stand and
Listen to the
Silent twitter
Of a billion
Tiny busy
Black words.
3 comments:
I have heard about the Wauconda library! Unfortunately I mostly order my books on-line and have Jared pick them up for me so my experience of our local library is somewhat limited. But there is nothing better than being in a place set aside specifically for books, browsing the shelves, reading something quite unexpected. I discovered T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party," exactly that way. It changed my life; it continues to change my life now.
Thank you also for your kind words. Not quite sure that I should be given hero status but I am glad finally to have found the words to express my thoughts and feelings on the subject. I know so many people who have struggled with this issue and in many ways I wrote it for them so that others might understand the pain. And what I found, through Gibran's poem and when thinking about what I wanted to write, that my story was not just about pain but the amazing grace given to me by God in the midst of it all through the people so close to me (like living with Troy and Molly and their crew) at the time.
I will totally vouch for you, Michelle! The Wauconda Library is downright magnificant in every way. I loved your poem choice this week because I, too, am passionate about libraries in general. "No need even to take out a book: only go inside and savor the heady dry breath of ink and paper..." Ahhhh.
BTW, Have you read the novel, "The Help" yet? I just finished it for the book club. It was impossible to put down. I think you'd really like it!
Michelle, your love for the written word is awesome. I hope you send this link to the library... they will love it!
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