Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Books



From the age of five, I have come home from the library each week with an armful of books. As a child, I read to escape, to enter a world better than the one I lived in, a world of unicorns and magic, princes and princesses, cottages with white picket fences, Heathcliff and Catherine and their undying love. I read to feed my dreams. Through young adult years, I read seeking a blueprint on how to live, how to escape the pain and arrive at the elusive life I longed for, which can only be reached by living. In my aging years, I moved from fiction to stories from real life, for our lives are more fascinating and unbelievable than anything a writer can make up. I read stories that inspire, tales of not just survival, but transcendence of difficult or impossible circumstances with a modicum of grace.  I read to visit all the places, make all the journeys I never will make in real life. Down all the years, week after week, how I love coming home with an armload of books.

Small child, young woman,
crone reading fast as light dims ~
books her constant friend


for Sumana's prompt at Midweek Motif: Books


18 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Wuthering heights.. yes a true classic!!!

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  3. Yes, yes--the journey of a reader! I wish I had written this!

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  4. I love this one!!! I love books, too.

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  5. 'an armful of books'...ah..what more could one want?..words do keep us alive and make us thrive...a wonderful haibun Sherry...

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  6. I might have written this, it suits my journey so well. Well said!

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  7. "transcendence of difficult or impossible circumstances with a modicum of grace" ... Yes, this.

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  8. Oh yes, an armful of books. What a joy!

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  9. I enjoy reading biographies too. I can relate so much to this, except that I didn't really start reading a lot until I graduated from college. My daughter started reading when she was very young.

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  10. This is really good, Sherry. Ha, I remember taking those weekly trips to the library with my mother. She came home with an armful of books, and so did I. We would read together... I still like coming home from the library with books. However, now it is usually one or two rather than an armful. But definitely my mother was a good role model.

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  11. Wonderful rea: .From one who has always lived close to libraries and found so many adventures in them.

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  12. An armful of books is a curious mind. I am so glad that reading once provided you a way to escape.

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  13. Loved this...the very soul of this poem!

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  14. Yep, me too. (Though in age I read less non-fiction and more escapist fiction!)

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  15. if you get hooked on reading books you will want them as your friends for the rest of your life. I do not recall any period in my life that I was not relaxing with a book in my spare time.

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  16. I love reading and watching documentaries now that I am older ~ Books are magical Sherry ~ Happy Easter ~

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  17. "I read to feed my dreams." Yes! Yes, I do.

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  18. The lines " our lives are more fascinating and unbelievable than anything a writer can make up." so true Sherry!

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