Monday, November 25, 2024

on reading

“Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.”
― Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

my eyes are giant jaws
know how to disappear 
me into books, let pages 
wrap and  swallow  me
like  a  tsunami  shelter 
I fix pages over my ears 
as  screens--under arms
suffering fins and wings 


Words? They're reckless 
things, they'll say/soak up
just anything: look/listen
how they make hope/fear/
freedom come true just by
knowing and remembering 
watch us waiting our turn 
...our time to sing/to sting
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Note: The "to sting" inspiration might just come from Nu's baby lovey, Silky the Bee, who used to pleasantly nuzzle "buzz-buzz" and then when you least expected it go "'ting-'ting." 
_____________________
Pic: Baker Woods yesterday with LB, who's back from Oregon (Yay). The woods are so bare now, but we still managed to get a bit lost because we hadn't been in so long and so many trees had come down in the interim.

8 comments:

Gillian said...

Nice

Nicole said...

Awwww ting ting.
What are you reading right now? I'm finishing up The God of the Woods.

StephLove said...

What a lovely ode to books.

Jenny said...

Beautiful poem. And I love the quote. And I love "ting"- I remember when my daughter was too little to make the "s" sound, so would just leave it off. So precious.

maya said...

Thank you!

maya said...

An old Kingsolver... plodding though it... People have been so divided on God of the Woods!

maya said...

Thank you, Steph!

maya said...

Thank you, Jenny. The "ting" was Nu voicing Silky of course--so another similarity :)

Corinth, Epidaurus, Mycenae, Nafplio

I've even had students named after Greek philosophers before, but oh--the thrill of hearing "Aristotle!" or "Chimera!...