Of Making Books

 

                           Be admonished: of making

                           many books there is no end.

                                         — ECCLESIASTES 12:12

 

For making books, you need to have a certain

appetite, a certain longing — you

need to look, to be quietly alert,

not quite earthbound. It helps to have a few

ideas, to be sure, and to know the rules,

exceptions to the rules, movement of tides.

So many books! But then, so many fools

adrift without them, mapless. Darkness hides

from light, muddle fights with meaning,

illness sleeps with ignorance — it was

ever thus, and so little time between

reckonings, just love and books to shield us

from the rough, mindless elements as we

set out for adventures on sun-drenched seas.

 

                                             for Fannie Safier

 

 

© Michael Fleming

Brattleboro, Vermont

October 2013

 

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