Oh, I sure hear that final cry, Max. But, get thee to a library, indeed; I'm finding it quite useful for many (though still buying too many books of poetry).
Doug
On 2013-02-20, at 3:10 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Stuff
>
> (verses starting with a misquotation from Yeats)
>
> Now we're almost settled in our flat,
> we start to look around refreshed,
> glad we made the effort of the flit,
>
> exhausted though we were before,
> during and for a long time after.
> The stuff we sent to storage! - where
>
> it languishes expensively -
> far exceeds the stuff we gave away,
> sent to the Salvos or St Vinnies
>
> (two of Melbourne's charities).
> The ancient rumbling Kelvinator
> stranded in the upstairs pantry
>
> we thought would suit one charity
> or other, ended up upended
> in the roadside skip we ordered in,
>
> along with stuff it pained me
> to trundle out and see exposed,
> or plundered, rained on, added to,
>
> all of which indeed happened.
> Boxes of books book-dealers would
> offer peanuts for, but might be read
>
> by friends (or help furnish their rooms)
> led the dispersal, and how kind they were
> to say Come visit later on, and browse
>
> in books you once kept close to you!
> Close? if the garage could be called close -
> two deep they were in Ikea bookshelves
>
> wrongly assembled to my disgrace,
> shelves now transferred to dark
> corners in friends' houses or sheds.
>
> Now in the flat some call a unit -
> we prefer 'apartment' - shelves are scarce,
> and garages non-existent quite.
>
> I need to take a longish drive
> to see the cartons in which
> my undisposed-of books are lurking,
>
> feeling when there like Michael,
> Wordsworth's shepherd, sitting
> at his unmade sheepfold - 'and never
>
> lifted up a single stone'. Can it be
> my reading days are over, these
> are closed books - a closed chapter
>
> in my life? Get thee to a library!
> Books are just stuff - others can amass
> them, now I must keep a clear small
>
> room, and a clear head, and elbow room.
> It's a tram ride to three free libraries.
> Remembered reading will see me home.
>
> Until my failing memory
> worsens - don't, please.
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
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Reserved books. Reserved land. Reserved flight.
And still property is theft.
Phyllis Webb
