Rita Dove poem
Dates: 3/31/01,11:49 AM through 4/3/01,8:05 AM (4 postings)
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Fiction_L Archives
Rita Dove poem
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FROM: Candice Michalik <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 3/31/01, 11:49 AM
The other night we heard Rita Dove read some of her
poetry. There was a great poem about librarians, but
I missed the title. Would any of you know what it is?
Many Thanks.
=====
Candice Michalik
Reference Librarian
Lynchburg Public Library
Lynchburg, VA
[removed]@yahoo.com
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FROM: "Sheffield, Beth" <[removed]@ci.greensboro.nc.us>
REC'D: 4/2/01, 11:29 AM
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Candice Michalik [[removed]@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 12:37 PM
> To: Fiction_L
> Subject: Rita Dove poem
>
> Hello
>
> The other night we heard Rita Dove read some of her
> poetry. There was a great poem about librarians, but
> I missed the title. Would any of you know what it is?
>
> Many Thanks.
>
>
>
> =====
> Candice Michalik
> Reference Librarian
> Lynchburg Public Library
> Lynchburg, VA
> [removed]@yahoo.com
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
> http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/?.refer=text
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
FROM: "ALD (LIB)" <[removed]@omaha.lib.ne.us>
REC'D: 4/2/01, 8:39 PM
Might this be the one?
Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967
For a fifteen-year-old there was plenty
to do: Browse the magazines,
slip into the Adult Section to see
what vast tristesse was born of rush-hour traffic,
decolletes, and the plague of too much money.
There was so much to discover -- how to
lay out a road, the language of flowers,
and the place of women in the tribe of Moost.
There were equations elegant as a French twist,
fractal geometry's unwinding maple leaf.
I could follow, step-by-step, the slow disclosure
of a pineapple Jell-O mold -- or take
the path of Harold's purple crayon through
the bedroom window and onto a lavender
spill of stars. Oh, I could walk any aisle
and smell wisdom, put a hand out to touch
the rough curve of bound leather,
the harsh parchment of dreams.
As for the improbable librarian
with her salt and paprika upsweep,
her British accent and sweater clip
(mom of a kid I knew from school) --
I'd go up to her desk and ask for help
on bareback rodeo or binary codes,
phonics, Gestalt theory,
lead poisoning in the Late Roman Empire,
the play of light in Dutch Renaissance painting;
I would claim to be researching
pre-Columbian pottery or Chinese foot-binding,
but all I wanted to know was:
Tell me what you've read that keeps
that half smile afloat
above the collar of your impeccable blouse.
So I read Gone with the Wind because
it was big, and haiku because they were small.
I studied history for its rhapsody of dates,
lingered over Cubist art for the way
it showed all sides of a guitar at once.
All the time in the world was there, and sometimes
all the world on a single page.
As much as I could hold
on my plastic card's imprint I took,
greedily: six books, six volumes of bliss,
the stuff we humans are made of:
words and sighs and silence,
ink and whips, Brahma and cosine,
corsets and poetry and blood sugar levels --
and the old garage where, on its boarded-up doors,
someone has scrawled:
I CAN EAT AN ELEPHANT
IF I TAKE SMALL BITES.
Yes, I said to no one in particular: That's
what I'm gonna do!
Rita Dove
HTH!
Sherry Forrest
Arts & Literature Dept.
Omaha Public Library (NE)
-----Original Message-----
From: Candice Michalik [[removed]@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 11:37 AM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Rita Dove poem
Hello
The other night we heard Rita Dove read some of her
poetry. There was a great poem about librarians, but
I missed the title. Would any of you know what it is?
Many Thanks.
=====
Candice Michalik
Reference Librarian
Lynchburg Public Library
Lynchburg, VA
[removed]@yahoo.com
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/?.refer=text
FROM: Candice Michalik <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 4/3/01, 8:05 AM
Candice
--- "ALD (LIB)" <[removed]@omaha.lib.ne.us> wrote:
> Candice,
>
> Might this be the one?
>
> Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967
>
> For a fifteen-year-old there was plenty
> to do: Browse the magazines,
> slip into the Adult Section to see
> what vast tristesse was born of rush-hour traffic,
> decolletes, and the plague of too much money.
> There was so much to discover -- how to
> lay out a road, the language of flowers,
> and the place of women in the tribe of Moost.
> There were equations elegant as a French twist,
> fractal geometry's unwinding maple leaf.
>
> I could follow, step-by-step, the slow disclosure
> of a pineapple Jell-O mold -- or take
> the path of Harold's purple crayon through
> the bedroom window and onto a lavender
> spill of stars. Oh, I could walk any aisle
> and smell wisdom, put a hand out to touch
> the rough curve of bound leather,
> the harsh parchment of dreams.
>
> As for the improbable librarian
> with her salt and paprika upsweep,
> her British accent and sweater clip
> (mom of a kid I knew from school) --
> I'd go up to her desk and ask for help
> on bareback rodeo or binary codes,
> phonics, Gestalt theory,
> lead poisoning in the Late Roman Empire,
> the play of light in Dutch Renaissance painting;
> I would claim to be researching
> pre-Columbian pottery or Chinese foot-binding,
> but all I wanted to know was:
> Tell me what you've read that keeps
> that half smile afloat
> above the collar of your impeccable blouse.
>
> So I read Gone with the Wind because
> it was big, and haiku because they were small.
> I studied history for its rhapsody of dates,
> lingered over Cubist art for the way
> it showed all sides of a guitar at once.
> All the time in the world was there, and sometimes
> all the world on a single page.
> As much as I could hold
> on my plastic card's imprint I took,
>
> greedily: six books, six volumes of bliss,
> the stuff we humans are made of:
> words and sighs and silence,
> ink and whips, Brahma and cosine,
> corsets and poetry and blood sugar levels --
> and the old garage where, on its boarded-up doors,
> someone has scrawled:
>
> I CAN EAT AN ELEPHANT
> IF I TAKE SMALL BITES.
>
> Yes, I said to no one in particular: That's
> what I'm gonna do!
>
> Rita Dove
>
>
> HTH!
>
> Sherry Forrest
> Arts & Literature Dept.
> Omaha Public Library (NE)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Candice Michalik [[removed]@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 11:37 AM
> To: Fiction_L
> Subject: Rita Dove poem
>
>
> Hello
>
> The other night we heard Rita Dove read some of her
> poetry. There was a great poem about librarians,
> but
> I missed the title. Would any of you know what it
> is?
>
> Many Thanks.
>
>
>
> =====
> Candice Michalik
> Reference Librarian
> Lynchburg Public Library
> Lynchburg, VA
> [removed]@yahoo.com
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
> http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/?.refer=text
>
>
......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L:
> http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>
>
......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L:
http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail.
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
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