Old Central Birmingham Library

Cherry

By Philip Sidney

Thu, 18 Feb 2016
  • 3956 reads
15 comments
 

Old Central Birmingham Library

the dark decades had us sitting on your concrete steps

we smokers, dreamers, waiting for adventurers.

You were the backdrop to our future

a cave of promise that lulled us

with the quiet echo around your walls –

read this, think this, know this

one day your life will change.

 

Garish in our market stall bargains

we had been ungainly

gazing at pre Raphaelite beauties

in the Victorian Baroque museum opposite

hoping some Edwardian Renaissance might

rub off - instead we left feeling grubby

but

we were radiant against your brutal strength

 

your quiet, modest purposefulness

took us forward through

your labyrinthine corridors -

not designed for ease

we had to work to find small nuggets of hope

up and down the creaky escalators

searching for a way out

of our dreary lives.                                         

 

And now you have been turned back into dust

we fill our lungs with the memory

of struggle

we breathe you in

knowing we too

lack the longevity of noble lines

grateful

for the life you gave us. 

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks for the cherry :)

Submitted by Starfish Girl on

Although Prince Charles hated it it did have something. That feeling of expectation as you mounted the 'creaky escalator', and if you got access to the special studies up the spiral staircase.

I do like the new library but do you remember the old Victorian one, a real treat.

Lindy

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks Lindy.  I don't remember the Victorian library but I like the pictures.  I like that so many Victorian buildings sit beside the new and I like that odd Shakespeare memorial room from it that they've put at the top of the new library - which I do love. :)

Submitted by EB on

This is more than just about the place but, about the 'us' left behind in it. 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks EB :) 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Places hold so many memories of many years past. Searching vast shelvings of books was so different to searching the encyclopaedic internet. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

They do Rhiannon, I can't help but think of all the people with their stories that pass through.  The internet is a wonder, but there's something about that still, studious, comradery of the library that I love.

Submitted by Ed Crane on

of lost familiars. I left my home town several decades ago and now when I occasionally return I find it an unrecognisable place that offers me nothing except the chance to get lost myself.

Ed

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks Ed, it's the way of cities, but I wanted to mark the passing of this old friend. :)

Submitted by VeraClark on

What a lively, emotive tribute. Library nostalgia brings me to tears, there are so many of them in my life too. I see each as a contributor to my personality according to who I was at the time. I sensed the writer's reluctance to let him go.

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks Vera.  I suppose with any letting go we're losng a bt of ourselves too. :)

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Helen

How nice to pay tribute in this way to your old library with all its memories.

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thanks Jean :)

Submitted by loquaciousicity on

In these 'turbulent' times, a lulling description, evoking many personal memories!!

Beautiful!

Terry

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Thank you so much Terry. smiley