“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library”
– Jorge Luis Borges
Shards of light
through dust particles
flicker like fireflies
dancing through dim-lit rooms
in unpredictable flight patterns.
The yellow sun of noontime
shakes off its rays
across the spines
of yellowed and crackling books,
abandoned to time’s hands.
The air is stale-sweet,
the musty heaviness of sweating books
mixing with the scents of vanilla
and tobacco
that linger among the pages like memories.
Shelves born mahogany
have washed themselves
pale-brown
with the soft-bleaching sunshine
of many forgotten years
and lines of paleness have been etched
across shelf and book alike
at the angle of sunlight
through windows
to mark time’s passing.
My fingers trace this discoloration
from book to book
towards the small window
as my eyes slow-adjust to the dim light
and the ghosts that float around me.
I must be the first visitor
in ages,
my mere presence mixing up the dust
as I crack open a random book
to its first page.
There is no one here but me
and all of human history,
bound in fraying spines and crackling covers.
The solitude feels almost like how
I would imagine paradise.
Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash
For Eugi’s Weekly Prompt, we are asked to craft a poem from the following prompt:
sun kissed paradise
ours is a world of our own
serendipity
Seamus O'Shaughnessy, Jr. 
Brilliant.
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Thank you!
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You just wrote out my fantasy in words.
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Glad to hear we’re on the same wavelength!
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Amazing poetry.
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Thank you!
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Brilliant, indeed! Superb imagery – I felt like I was there! Thank you so much for joining in.
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Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I always appreciate seeing your prompts:)
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My pleasure, Evan!
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I guess, everyone who loves reading will feel this deeply. 🙂
VVN
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I really hope so! It certainly struck a chord with me seeing the prompt and recalling the quote 😊
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Wow! What a fantastic poem! Wonderful imagery and atmosphere! And, yes, certain libraries are very much their own little paradise. Bravo!
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Thank you so much!
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I love the bit of romance in your pieces. I enjoyed “Shelves born mahogany have washed themselves”. Something about it reveres libraries as physical places not just our collections. I prompt you to capture this level of passion regarding a digital library.
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I like the prompt, let’s see what I can do…
Look out for a post sometime in the next few weeks!!
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What a beautiful thought expressed in even more beautiful words. Indeed a library full of books where one could escape to in times of feeling low, is a paradise par excellence.
Loved this thoroughly.
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Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the piece 🙂
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[…] A Kind of Library [Poem] – Sitting in a Garden Sipping Tea. […]
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Absolutely transported by this poem! Well done.
~🕊Dora
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Thank you! I’m glad you liked it!
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Aaahh..bookstore, library, books books…paradise indeed. Thank you for your words. Thank you for taking my imagination to this place.
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I’m glad to see someone else sees a library as a kind of paradiss!
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