The weight of words

Cherry

By Parson Thru

Fri, 15 May 2020
  • 1756 reads
12 comments
 

I pick it up and put it down

Read through the contents list

Flick curiously to the elegies

Feeling that I know them

 

During countless nights like this

Insomnia flicks the switch

Lights the pile beside my head

 

Blear-eyed, I let a page fall open

Thoughts from a plane window

Moving over the Map

 

I know it

 

A lucky find

Charity shop – Oxfam or Amnesty

At two ninety-nine

Three dollars new

 

First edition, City Lights

San Francisco, ‘72

 

Tactile, heavy, like a Holy Book

 

The weight of words

Certificate U
Poem
Mortality Games
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Ed Crane on

I keep hearing about libraries closing all over the UK and in schools too. Can this be true? 

Here the libraries are considered essential for education, they are well stocked and the bigger ones even have a large collection of books in English in pretty much all genders. Not so long ago my local one came up with a dusty copy of  Ulysses when I mentioned James Joyce to one of the librarians.

They run courses and even open (pre-lockdown) on Sunday mornings (closed Monday of course)

Congrats on the fruit.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Libraries were decimated during the austerity years. Many fell victim to the Eton boys' abolition of the local authority grant, which crippled LA finances and made them have to choose between "essential services" and libraries (there's a thing). York seems reasonably intact, and seems to have largely adapted to the electronic age. I ģet the feeling this is an exception. I joined my local library in Madrid But barely explored it really. It seemed impressive. The UK has a strong creative side to it I think. It's quite diverse. In large part, commercial/career based, but also grass-roots/community. The latter, I think, survives in spite of Philistinism that forms part of the mainstream culture and auction room elitism of the ruling class, its Cameron-Osborne manifestation and their successors.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thank you cherry picker!! X

Parson Thru

Submitted by Ed Crane on

I couldn't have been more right crying

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

True! So heartbreakingly true.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Feliz San Isidro a todos!

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I have just got a book from ebay, my first book for months :0) I have been looking forward to it like a cast away watches for sails. How are you doing your coursework with no libraries?

The first bit of your poem reminded me of being little and licking round the edges of an icecream in a cone :0) i like second hand books too. New books are kind of raw ingredients, an apple off a tree maybe, and are so special, sacred in a way, but second hand books, they have extra flavours, notes in margins, scribbled prices in pencil or fountain pen ink for money I never used. I got a complete Shakespeare for £1 last year with a big bit of broken glass deep inside like a bookmark, which I keep wondering about.

The feeling you bring that this particular book is special to you, needed by you as others need a bible to steady them, I love how you love your books :0)

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hello Di! I love that thing with the castaway looking for sails. Not a castaway looking for sales, as I almost typed. I love the Spanish word for castaway.

Yes, I like books. I always have too many. It cost me a fortune to fly them back from Spain. We disposed of hundreds before I went out there.

I've got a couple of books from libraries at the moment. Goodness knows when they'll ever go back. I recommend "Studying Poetry" by Matterson and Jones. I like the second hand variety, too. Although I did buy Ted Hughes "Collected" and the Cambridge Companion recently, which I might have told you. I've got some oddities as well, courtesy of charity shops. Penguin Nineteenth Century French Verse. Baudelaire "Fleurs de Mal", all grist to the mill. Shakespeare can be really good value and there's so much in there. Almost too much. What did you just buy? This one is Ginsberg, "The Fall of America...". I suppose it could be a reprint. Doesn't say so on the verso page and the cover price is $3.00. Not that it matters anyway. Hope you're getting some fresh air and inspiration.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

naufrago?

How aweful to have to dispose of books! I have books which make me guilty because I KNOW   they are clever but I don't want to read them,like a garment that is very smart but uncomfortable so I never wear it, and others which I read over and over again till they fall to bits because I am happy in them:0)

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Perfect! Yes. Exactly.

náufrago, yes.

I drew one on a little desert island on the whiteboard in an English class once. In a law firm in the centre of Madrid. That's where I first heard the word. I loved it. Can't remember why I drew a castaway for the life of me.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I bet you are a fabulous teacher. I hope you go back to teaching!

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Idiosyncratic maybe! :)))

I hope I do, too, Di. X

Parson Thru