Ah Max so relevant for me too -I am immersed enmeshed in books (cheaper than
wallpaper??) I do try to get rid of them -not very successfully -all those
must read sometimes -and even feeling that I get points for buying them
(counts as a part read) -I do like the choice -maybe I could get rid of some
that are now ebooks (if I ever get this Kindle thing working properly(non
tech geriatric memory failing poet git me
Cheers P
Ps read bow shelves are a useful aide memoire! :-)
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 20 February 2013 22:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: stuff
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.
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