The Magic of Reading: Poetry

The prologue remains sealed in my memory as a marbled sculpture

If at any point my breath makes contact with its bristling revelations

Once more am I whisked to a past wherein I found the first scents of yellowed pages and still inks

Looming over myself, as if a historical relic in a museum (Perhaps you are!)

With flying glances, I peer into the pages still humming with colors – whom would find succeeding shelter in the bare scrolls bottled into my skull (A forever home.)

And the first dialogues uttered arrive shrill and thrilled

The resonating sounds send questions of when the voices began to ring within – varying intonations, volumes, accents and all!

Ah, needn’t that matter – the ribboning bookmark has already slipped from one to another

Hence, I return the first volume to its rightful cove as the tide returns

I have but only just finished the opening!

Marble turns to far seas and Earth that whistles of its trees and beasts,

Pages swirl to draw out the skies and all those who I might find,

Yes, therefore I set forth! (Encore!)

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The portrait of a girl:

She sits for hours

Through starlight and sun

Hunched over books

In love with each one

The pages: the flicker, flutter, flipping page by page. Oh help her see how it came to be?

“A labyrinth of wood

Traced by paper and ink

Be lost in this world

Where nothing has to be.”

The stories: the reason, reading, writing word by word. Oh help her see why she is there?

“A maze of history

Laced with sadness and adventure

Be lost in this world

Where everything comes magically.”

The library: the home, haven, heartbound day by day. Oh help her see why she would never stray?

“An entanglement of expression

Strung by wonder and wisdom

Be lost in this world

Where everything can be free.”

And so:

She walks for hours

After dark and day

Because why would she leave

If she could stay?

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The first piece was written by Nat, and the second piece was written by Anya.