I got the idea for this ode of my own, but didn't have time to write it during that last week of school. However, today it came back full force, and so I dropped everything and wrote it. I didn't spend a lot of time revising -- I wanted it to feel a bit raw, like my feelings about this are. Lately, I am thinking a lot about how things used to be, and attempting to make some changes to accommodate some creativity and energy I may have lost along the way. (Hint: My next post may be called "Why I Have Come to Hate my iPad.")
What does this have to do with blue space or green space? I think the subject of this has an incredible amount to do with space -- how we used to allow ourselves to move through it more freely. Much like my students who used to have slumber parties and conversations and swimming time, without the constant haunt of a text or other communication interfering. We all need more space, whatever form it takes.
And we all need to visit a bookstore.
Ode to Browsing the Bookstore
There was a time when it was the premiere activity
For a Friday night
Or a Sunday afternoon.
It is what you did with friends. Dinner or lunch,
Then head to Borders to check out the huge selection
Of books and music, perhaps leaving with something
Special, something new, something like Bjork to listen
To in the car on the drive home during a thunderstorm,
Or a new poet or writer you had not heard of before,
But who would become your new favorite
Once you read that first poem, that first chapter,
Drawn by a book cover that was meant to appeal to you.
It was a time when books were just one thing--bound paper-- and
Your friend worked at one of those stores and told
You about the people that came in, what kinds of books
They sought after, how she led them to read the works of
Julia Cameron and SARK. How she would tell you of an author’s
Visit you wished you wouldn’t have missed because
You were working. And it sounded like heaven.
Many times you remember wandering to a bookstore
With friends, maybe whole families, people of all ages,
And it was perfectly acceptable to spread out, some going
To the art books section, the middle grades section, the
Classic literature section, religion, science, magazines.
Somehow you all knew where and when to meet back
In the front of the store,
Or what special reading place you might find your friend’s
Daughter holed away when it was time to leave.
So much changed when the Internet came – amazon.com
To be specific, and then eventually iTunes.
You would read the New
York Times Book Review
to discover new books. Online articles and Facebook notifications
about your favorite artist dropping a new album of songs.
Occasionally you would find a great book in the new books
section
Of the library.
But even now, you don’t look there anymore.
After all, there is a whole wish list of books sitting on
the
Amazon website…you need to honor that, right? And it's so much
easier just to order up the book you want online, walk in, find the shelf,
check it out, email the receipt. Not even five minutes.
Soon enough, Borders became small gift shops with cafes
Hardly what you’d call a selection of books…and then
They just closed right up. Barnes and Noble is still hanging in
there, but even it isn't what it used to be.
When you travel you seek
Out those special bookstores: Square Books in Oxford,
Village Lights in Madison, Indiana,
Parnesseus in Nashville. But that seems to be a vacation
Activity, relegated to that time away from the norms
Of everyday life. A way to pass the time, discover
Something new, a throwback to something that you used to do
On a regular basis without the aid of newspapers
And the Internet, without the desire to sit in a chair
With an iPad
And do it all from there.
3:39 p.m.
6/3/17
hms
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