Poetry Wrap Up!
Although April is National Poetry Month the library is committed to collecting the finest poetry, as well as the finest prose, all year round. In addition, we have an annual poetry reading where we invite nationally recognized poets to read from their works. In past years the poets have travelled to Stratford to share their work or our neighboring town of Laurel Springs to read at the Whitman Stafford Farm House. Since the pandemic, however, we’ve utilized ZOOM for digital readings that are as close to in-person performances as possible. For example, this year Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, Elaine Terranova, and Eleanor Wilner graced us with their award winning poetry online. The library continues to serve the community with art, literature, and music. The library can also be considered an adventure in discovery: what new books and authors will you encounter when you walk through our doors? Please come and visit us often and celebrate the library in all its enticements and mystery.
The Library
“Most public libraries… have changed over the years from quiet sanctums”
—www.quora.com
Once the last patron has gone, the lights
snapped off, doors locked & alarmed, the library
awakens. Along the walls its silent books
resume their quiet conversations: Procopius
reveals more of The Secret History, Shakespeare
recites a sonnet, brandishing a fresh goose quill.
Tolstoy still insists “let the dead bury the dead.” Look,
mobile book-shelves desert their assigned
locations where they’ve been stuck all day
like vans in an 8 hour traffic jam. Free
to become again that bastion of quietude
the library celebrates row after row
of silent computers, vanished lines
of curmudgeons protesting overdue fines,
hordes of screaming toddlers who never listen
to stories during Story-Time. O, the library
longs for traditional peace & quiet.
Whenever some upstart announces that
the library is “incomplete until it interacts
with patrons,” it shudders, blinks its LED
lights, and dreams of an extended blackout.
--Alfred Encarnacion
