Image by Hermann Traub from Pixabay
Publication Date: July 2023
Location: PoetsOnline.org, and specifically on the Books archive page.
Genesis: Books are a hugely important part of my life, even to the extent that I’ve never owned a Kindle, and I am not even tempted. This poem was written specifically for the prompt around the subject of books, and I had a lot of fun pulling together radically different ideas about what books are and how they can be used.
I’ve been moved to write haiku of late, and this one morphed into a series of eight, one for each idea. (Unfortunately, this is not obvious in the way in which it has turned up in the link above, an issue which I address here.)
Knowledge.
Google is now the
source of all human knowledge.
What could go wrong there?
Fuel.
Tyrannies burn books.
Idealogues love the heat
from notions they hate.
Symbols.
Behold! All I read!
See my sophistication!
(Never mind the dust.)
Weapons.
Strike across the head.
Spine driven into the throat.
Small paper cuts hurt!
Shields.
Just because I sit
Next to you on this slow train
Does not mean I speak.
Old Trees.
Turn that page. Is there
Still a slight echo of its
arboreal roots?
Wisdom.
The Power of Now -
notice how the very words
magically invoke…
Everything…
Funny, scary, life-
changing, thought-provoking. Each
page a portal to…