Poem of the Day: “Books I've Been Meaning To Read” by F. J. Bergmann

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Books I've Been Meaning To Read” by F. J. Bergmann.  Mrs. Bergmann’s work appeared previously in the Review where a brief bio may be found:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/06/poetry-review-special-feature-cosmic.html.

Books I've Been Meaning To Read

F. J. Bergmann

The books I've been meaning to read

cover the floor. They are meant to be 

read, someday. There are still a few 

patches of carpet showing. These are 

the books that matter, good books,

books that could show me the way. 

My husband swears if he trips on them

once more he'll ... A book can take you 

on a trip, a book is like a sailing ship.

These books are a flotilla, a fleet, 

an armada of sunken three-masters 

with their skeletonized crews, crazily 

skewed, littering the continental shelf.

They are important, they are mine, 

they are something I will get around to, 

he can get around them if he tries. I am 

trying, okay? I have not read them yet 

but when I do, everything will become 

clear and orderly. Somewhere in these

books, when I have the time to sit down 

and look through them carefully, there is

a book that will explain everything. 

That book will change my life: it will 

remedy all the deficiencies of fortune.

And it will pick up all the other books 

and put them away.

Poet’s Notes:  I worked in a used-book store (not to be confused with a used bookstore) for nearly a decade and spent far too much of my paycheck in the store itself. This was written at a time when the accumulation had gotten particularly out of hand. We have discovered that constructing a paperback-sized shelf at ceiling height all the way around the living room has freed up three bookcases--for more books, of course.

Editor’s Note:  Now here is a sentiment we bookish folk can certainly appreciate--and nicely expressed, too!