Poetry for library lovers

     In preparation for Library Lovers Month (it's just around the corner), I've been looking through some of the old stuff I've used over the last couple of years.  That's when I stumbled across two pieces of poetry I'd like to share with you.  Sometimes reading another person's view of the library makes me appreciate where I work even more.  So...enjoy!

My Library by Varda One
It's only a room with shelves and books,
but it's far more magical than it looks.
It's a jet on which I soar
to lands that exist no more.
Or a key with which I find
answers to questions crowding my mind.
Building my habit of learning and growing,
asking and researching till I reach knowing.
Here, I've been a mermaid and an elf;
I've even learned to be more myself.
I think that I shall never see
a place that's been more useful to me
With encouraging kind friends with wit,
who tell me to dream big and never quit.
It's only a room with shelves and books,
but it's far more magical than it looks.
(Copyright 1999 by Varda One of Hawthorne, CA, who has given library support groups permission to reprint or read aloud at any events on behalf of their library.)

In a Library by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
A precious, mouldering pleasure 'tis
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,
His venerable hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.
His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;
What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;
When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,
He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.
His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.
(http://classiclit.about.com/)

     What delightful reading.  Poetry.  Come visit our library during Library Lovers Month.  That's February and it's just around the corner.