Wednesday January 11 2017  MY LOVE STORY TOLD

 

MY LOVE STORY TOLD

Kathleen Martens

January 11, 2017

www.visionsofpoetry.com

 

Sitting alone

In an atmosphere of friends,

In silent solitude

Distant sound lends.

 

Rows upon rows

In stately array,

My companions sit

Throughout each day.

 

With proprietor air

My view commands,

And comfortable chairs,

Sitting demands.

 

A favorite place.

No passage of time,

Suspended, subdued,

My world sublime.

 

Patiently waiting

And generous beyond measure

My friends long to be

My next treasure.

 

And so I peruse

Touch and inspect.

Each has a tale

On which I reflect.

 

Though many are strangers

Some I take home,

And dozens and dozens

I’ve already known.

 

In quiet pleasure

It’s so nice to realize

I can take what I like

Without any guise.

 

My love story told

From deep in my heart.

I’ll go check out a book

And a new read I will start.

 

The above poem was inspired by my visit to the library this afternoon.  The library was my destination with full intent to sit in solitude, with no distractions, no phones, no work looking me in the face, and with intent and purpose to just go there because I could.  Wednesday is my day off and I like to do something during the day that is a treat to me.  Actually I planned a short interlude so I could sit in a different environment to write my daily poem.  I ended up reading the newspaper and a magazine before I wrote my poem.  I was gone just under two hours.  It was a treat! 

Our library is two miles down the highway from where we live.  The state of the art building was opened in June 2010.  Until then we had to drive several miles to go to a library.  I was overjoyed to find out we were building a library here in our own community.  Our community is quite spread out.  The area we live in has a moratorium that you can only build a house on 40 acres or more.  That moratorium was put into effect after our development was built in the early 1960’s.  The homes built around us are on about two to 5 acres each.  So to have a library come as close to us as ours did was quite a triumph.  There is very rarely a week that goes by that I do not go to the library.  It is truly a love story for me.

I have loved libraries from the time I could first read.  We lived in a little town in the San Francisco bay area and we even had a library there.  It was a small house converted into a public library.  I visited that library from the time I was 6 years old.  It was my favorite place in the world.  When I passed through the little town in 2015 I stopped by and went inside the tiny building.  It was as if I was visiting a long lost friend.  Very little had changed except the little tables and chairs.  Once they were made of sturdy wood.  Now the tables were covered in Formica with metal legs and the chairs were the colorful molded seats and backs with metal legs.  I sat down in one of those little chairs with my favorite childhood book in hand.  I went to the same shelf it had been on years before and it was in the exact the same place, but in an updated version.  It was Beverly Cleary’s, “Henry and Ribsy”.  The librarian snapped a picture of me using my cell phone.  However, I am not using my cell phone this week so I cannot post the photo.

Libraries are wonderful friends.  When I walk inside our local library it always amazes that every single book in there belongs to me!  A bit egotistical, but that is how I perceive it.  I simply walk over to a shelf, choose a book, put it through a scanner, and walk away without so much as saying hi or good bye.  It makes me feel so rich.  What opulence! 

 

Thank You God for words.

Thank You especially for Your Word.

Thank You too that I have the capacity to read.

Thank You that I have vision.

Thank You for audio books as well.

And thank You that I can hear.

 

My prayer for today:

Lord, my thanks to You never ends.  Lord, let me never take for granted what is available to our population because of the fact that we live in the United States.  Let me never take for granted my vision or my hearing.  I pray that I am always thankful for all things that are so often taken for granted each day.  Thank You that I can walk, and talk, and touch, and feel, and think, and sing.  Thank You that libraries are available as well as education.  And especially, thank You for Your love.”

 

GOOD NIGHT!  I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT BOOK TO READ!