The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 1/2/08 Bonus (by request: Mary Oliver)

[BlueIris]

"An Afternoon in the Stacks"
 
Closing the book, I find I have left my head
inside. It is dark in here, but the chapters open
their beautiful spaces and give a rustling sound,
words adjusting themselves to their meaning.
Long passages open at successive pages. An echo,
continuous from the title onward, hums
behind me. From in here, the world looms,
a jungle redeemed by these linked sentences
carved out when an author traveled and a reader
kept the way open. When this book ends
I will pull it inside-out like a sock
and throw it back in the library. But the rumor
of it will haunt all that follows in my life.
A candleflame in Tibet leans when I move.

—Mary Oliver

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. thanks for posting this and to whomever requested it --

I know that feeling very well. I am reading a book right now VERY SLOWLY because I do not want it to ever end. I want to be inside this book and live with these people in their time and space. I almost hate reading it, I love it so much.

[BlueIris]

2. You can thank truedelphi for this request.

And, hee. "I almost hate reading it, I love it so much." I know that feeling.

[DarkTirade]

6. Alas, all good things must come to an end.

[RetroLounge]

4. What book?

I feel that way right now about Atwood's The Blind Assassin.

Breathtakingly beautiful...

RL

[BlueIris]

3. Kick.

[RetroLounge]

5. Oh, just gorgeous!

thanks!

RL

[ThomCat]

7. I've had a few books influence me that way

and that's a wonderful description of the way a really good book can become part of you. :)

[BlueIris]

8. "How many a man has dated an era in his life by the reading of a book!"

[BlueIris]

9. Kick.