BOOKS

My set of classics (Traded in 1973)

It felt like I tasted candy when she read to us.  Her sweet voice dramatized emotions contained in words written long ago. The class, usually a little noisy, sat frozen in silence as images appeared on the screen of each student's imagination.  No one had ever read to me before.  I thought I didn't like reading,   My family didn't read or speak English. There were no books at home.   I thank this teacher for successfully instilling a hunger for more.  Books became inseparable from my life.

Once, many years ago, my husband and I traded an old, beaten up car for a set of classic books, beautifully bound.  We knew we made the better deal.  When my daughter rested peacefully in my belly, I read to her.  When my husband worked nights, I read all night long.  My favorite outing?  To go to a bookstore.  I cannot go to sleep unless I read before turning off the lights.

My home is cluttered with books.  I treasure them like real people with covers that mislead, attract attention giving clues about the person within.  They're expressing dreams, ways to help, share a story, or a poem, fiction or truth that exposes their true self...to me.

Books in every corner

People waiting to be opened

Hoping to be understood 

(For Poets United.)