2 Reasons I Love My Library--and Happy Poetry Friday!

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Howdy, Campers!

Happy Poetry Friday!  The link to today's PF host is below.

This round, we at TeachingAuthors have decided to trot out the topic, Ways I Use the Library, and I'm the first to saddle up.  My horse is a little rebellious today, so I'm going to change the topic slightly to: Reasons I Love My Library.

How do I love libraries? Let me conjure up memories:

The word library

from morguefile.com

sends me back to Franklin Elementary School and its smoky-voiced librarian, Mrs. Orbach.  I will always be grateful to her for breaking the rules and letting me check out The Complete Sherlock Holmes 13 times.

The word library stands me next to my mother, choosing Wind, Sand and Stars for me as if she were sharing an important secret from her childhood.  This sacred act in the Yuba City, California library is tied to that cool oasis from Yuba City’s heat—the downstairs rooms, dark walls painted during the WPA…and that good book-composty smell.

I love my library for a raft of reasons, but I especially love libraries (1) as a quiet place to write without holing up in my house, and (2) because they hold a treasure trove of audiobooks. Joy, joy, joy--audiobooks!

I love being read to. I'm probably an audio learner.

from morguefile.com (As I am posting this photo, I just learned today is National Earmuff Day.)

I remember Mom cracking up as she read to us from Kids Say the Darndest Things, Archie & Mehitabel, The Joys of Yiddish, Catcher in the Rye, and any stories by Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain and Molly Ivins.  My teacher and mentor, poet Myra Cohn Livingston, always set aside time in class to read poetry.  Nothing was required of us.  Listen. Absorb. Enjoy.

These days, the word library means a place I go to write.  I like being surrounded by books and by quiet bookpeople working and reading.  A true Southern California commuter, when I walk back to my car, my arms are full of audiobooks, to sustain me on my long drives to my writing group and to UCLA. ( In one just-before-summer post, I recommend three audiobooks...and today I'd add Deborah Wiles' Each Little Bird That Sings to that trio--all from my lovely local library.)

Here's a library poem from my 2011 Poetry Month blog:

The story behind the poem: I was in the library, and as the librarian waved her wand over an audiobook, I heard it click…I began wondering how many sounds there were in a library…including the sounds a book’s story makes in one’s head.

IT’S NOT QUIET IN THE LIBRARY
by April Halprin Wayland

The electric door is opening, it sucks in outside air.
A carpet rubs as a patron sits down on his chosen chair.

The blonde librarian waves her wand—I can hear it whisper-click
six times as it moves back and forth o’er six non-fiction picks.

There are sounds that bounce around the rows of all the Y.A. books
if you listen closely you can hear folks’ irritated looks

at that oops-he-forgot-to-turn-off-his-cell’s rock ‘n rolling ring
while on this page I hear the voice of Martin Luther King:

and as I read, “I have a dream” reverberates in my head
near Charlotte, who is loudly spinning words into her web.

There are sounds around this building, there are sounds in books like these.
It’s not quiet in the library and that’s okay by me.

(c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

It’s your turn. Take your notebook to a park or a restaurant or a school or the beach and write down the sounds.  It may help to close your eyes to hear them.  Select the most interesting; write a poem.

The host of Poetry Friday is our beloved Author Amok, Laura Shovan ~ thank you, Laura!

posted quietly by April Halprin Wayland and Eli, immersed in his favorite novel.