Book Keeping

The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough, or the right one at the right moment, but then sometimes to find you’d longed to fall asleep reading The Aspern Papers, and there it is.  ~~Louise Erdrich, quoted on The Writers Almanac, 7 June 2016.

Once upon a time I hoarded books
haunted used book stores gathered
dusty treasures reaching always
for one more that familiar itch
a low grade accumulation fever
but the weight of it was too much and
I ran out of boxes and shelves
and the will to haul crates of books
Everywhere
and so chose a different way to see
Books as fish in a river
never the same twice
Reel one in catch and release
back to the wild this wide wet view lets
me believe the book in my hands
is always the right one and the book
I catch and offer to you
well that is the perfect book
Go ahead. Dive in deep.