New Index of the books now shelved
by legislators fearing texts –
except those displayed on the wall;
a growing volume into store,
fresh bandwidth, unacceptable –
a preface of endpaper trails.
The place of stories, literature,
of challenge, creativity,
that stir imagination’s lot;
their plot, to rid all differed thought –
dust covered jackets, draping sheets,
for bonfire, not preservative.
Our inbred Curiosity
like Little Nell of Dicken’s Shop,
hears knell of bell toll mourning warn;
the death of libraries pronounced,
its emphasis on censorship
in case we find how others live.
Yet all these worlds are met through words,
as Dewey eyed amongst the stacks,
so classified, but not denied
as secrets to be locked away.
Protection racket underway,
but dressed up for the bullet box.
Here’s reading room of history,
a passport through those border guards.
For pen and print, where glyphs pre-scribed –
all godly in relationships
as creatures paint their sacred text –
in being is incarnate trait.
Stephen Kingsnorth (Cambridge M.A., English & Religious Studies), retired to Wales, UK, from ministry in the Methodist Church due to Parkinson’s Disease, has had pieces curated and published by on-line poetry sites, printed journals and anthologies, including Poetry Potion. He has, like so many, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His blog is at https://poetrykingsnorth.wordpress.com