Poetry for April 18, 2007

Willits Library National Poetry Month AND National Library Week Poem of the Day for April 18, 2007 – with thanks to all our Friends of the Library Book Sale Volunteers!

Edward H. Anderson

Four Quatrains for the Ex-Library Copy

O, thou rubbed, sunned, and smudged relic!

Thou marked, worn, time-spoiled tome!

Thy bent spine, frayed corners, ugly scribbles

But more endear thee to me in thy new home!

Safe from further stains and ravages,

No more shall thy past grandeur fade.

Though ignominiously stamped with “DISCARDED,’

Thou’rt well worth the quarter I paid!

Now enshrined on my safeguarding bookshelf,

Though thou’rt nicked, scuffed, creased, and quite torn –

Thy ex-libris smell I quite savor –

And now canst thy spirit be reborn.

Ne’er more shall numerous dirty fingers,

Tear thy endpages, buckram cover, and soul!

Here close to my heart dwellst thou forever,

Though of thee Time hath taken Her toll.

Poem of the Day – Ukiah Library

Workday

Linda Hogan

I go to work

though there are those who were missing today

from their homes.

I ride the bus

and do not think of children without food

or how my sisters are chained to prison beds.

I go the university

and out for lunch

and listen to the higher-ups

tell me all they have read

about Indians

and how to analyze this poem.

They know us

better than we know ourselves.

I ride the bus home

and sit behind the driver.

We talk about the weather

and not enough exercise.

I don’t mention Victor Jara’s mutilated hands

or men next door

in exile

or my own family’s grief over the lost child.

When I get off the bus

I look back at the light in the windows

and the heads bent

and how the women are all alone

in each seat

framed in the windows

and the men are coming home;

then I see them walking on the Avenue

the beautiful feet,

the perfect legs

even with their spider veins

the broken knees

with pins in them;

the thighs with their cravings,

the pelvis

and small back

with its soft down

the should which bend forward

and forward and forward

to protect the heart from pain.