National Poetry Month AND National Library Week

April is National Poetry Month and the week of April 12th through April 17th is National Library Week. What better way to celebrate both than with some poems about libraries! In fact, I have found two very good, very interesting poems about libraries.

Library by Valerie Worth is from the book All the Small Poems and Fourteen More.

No need even
to take out
a book: only
go inside
and savor
the heady
dry breath of
ink and paper,
or stand and
listen to the
silent twitter
of a billion
tiny busy
black words.

The second poem is entitled My First Memory (of Librarians) by author and sometime poet Nikki Giovanni. Giovanni conjures up an image of a long-ago library, with an actual card catalog and green bankers’ lights. The welcoming smile on a librarians’ face is something we hope you see at our library often!

This is my first memory:
A big room with heavy wooden tables that sat on a creaky wood floor
A line of green shades – bankers’ lights down the center
Heavy oak chairs that were too low or maybe I was simply
too short
for me to sit in and read
So my first book was always big.

In the foyer up four steps a semi-circle desk presided
To the left side the card catalogue
On the right newspapers draped over what looked like a quilt rack
Magazines face out from the wall.

The welcoming smile of my librarian
The anticipation in my heart
All those books – another world – just waiting
At my fingertips.

Come in to the library this week and help us celebrate National Library Week and National Poetry Month by picking up a book of poetry. Meg

National Poetry Month - Robert Frost

One of America’s most popular poets, Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, but moved to New England when he was a boy, and many of his poems have a distinct New England flavor.

Some of his most popular and recognized poems are Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening and The Road Not Taken, but one of my favorites is a very simple, very short poem entitled Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Recommended books of poetry by Mr. Frost include: The Robert Frost Reader: Poetry and Prose and Early Poems.

For an introduction to the poet try these two excellent children’s books: A Swinger of Birches: Robert Frost for Young People and Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening illustrated by Susan Jeffers. Meg

National Poetry Month - A Beginning

What is National Poetry Month?

“National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. “ Their goal is to increase everyone’s interest in the art of poetry, living poets and America’s rich cultural heritage of poems, poetry books and journals.

To start your celebration of National Poetry Month here are two really good, really accessible books of poetry that are highly recommended.

* American’s Favorite Poems, edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz

The “favorite poem project” was started by Robert Pinksy when he was America’s Poet Laureate, and was dedicated to exploring and encouraging the importance of poetry in American lives. Americans (over 18,000 of them) from all over the country submitted their favorite poem and explained how this poem had touched them.

This book includes quite a number of those poems with an explanation of the poem’s significance to the person submitting it. There is also a wonderful web site that contains videos of people reading their selections.

* Poem a Day, edited by Laurie Sheck.

This lovely paperback contains a very wide range of poems, long and short, simple and complex, to get you started reading “a poem a day.” Sheck also includes short comments and stories about the poets and their work.

During the month of April, we will be sharing favorite poems and favorite books of poems and about poetry. Check back often. If YOU have a favorite poem, please share it with us. Meg

Spring Cleaning - Get a Book Ahead

Did you know that March 28 through April 3rd is National Cleaning Week?

It's just to remind you that it is time for that spring cleaning we all hope to do. I know that sometimes Martha Stewart can be a bit overwhelming (where does she get the time to do all that stuff?), but she does have two books on cleaning and caring for your home that are excellent.

Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook (2006) is a comprehensive manual on how and when to care for various items in your home, with a room by room guide with weekly, monthly and seasonal checklists. There are also tips for cleaning and even help for folks who are moving.

Good Things for Organizing by Martha Stewart (2001) is the second book I would like to recommend. Divided up by rooms (Kitchen, Bedroom, Storage Rooms, Workrooms, etc.) this book suggests, with both text and pictures, many ways to help organize your stuff. She also includes tips for re-using household articles in new and different ways, along with “how-to” directions for simple building projects.

The library has many other books on house cleaning or de-cluttering. Come check them out. Meg

Novels with a hint of green...

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! If you’re looking to get in the mood, try the following -

Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
“You can always start again. All it takes is a new thread.” Kate Robinson flees from her struggling fashion career and other heartbreaks, back to her ancestral Irish homeland , seeking peace and equilibrium. Her mother’s sewing maxim about starting again becomes far more meaningful as she learns the craft of lace-making from a local group of women and finds new friends and inspiration.

Swan Maiden by Jules Watson
This is the retelling of one of the most enduring of Irish legends, the tale of Deirdre – the Irish Helen of Troy. Don’t let the science fiction label put you off. This is a romantic and tragic tale of “enchantment and eternal passions.”

The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
The plot is unique: Fegan, who has been a IRA killer in Northern Ireland, is out of a job, so-to-speak, once peace is realized. Unfortunately for Fegan, he is now haunted by the ghosts of his innocent victims – and the only way out is for him to avenge their deaths and kill the men who had given the kill orders. Booklist says “Neville’s debut novel is tragic, violent, exciting, plausible and compelling….and hard to put down.” Meg

How Does Your Garden Grow?

A gloriously green display of gardening books of all sorts greets you as you walk into the library. Come see books and other materials on vegetable gardening, composting, flower gardening and more.

Novices should try Organic Gardening for Dummies or Easy Container Gardens. Experts might want to look at Old Fashioned and David Austin Roses. There are even gardening murder mysteries, including Summer Garden Murder or Death of a Political Plant , both by Ann Ripley.

Meg

It's Written in the Bones - Reading About Forensic Science

You could say that Patricia Cornwall started it all, with Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Then Kiernan O’Shaughnessy, a former medical examiner, tried her hand at detecting.

Today, television series (NCIS, Bones, etc.) and books (The Bone Garden by Tess Gerristsen, 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs, etc.) about forensics and scientific criminal invesitgation are everywhere.

But have you checked out the non-fiction? A brand new book, written by Pulitzer Prize winning science writer, Deborah Blum, is The Poisoner’s Handbook. Subtitled “Murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York,” The Poisoner’s Handbook introduces us to Charles Norris, who later became New York City’s chief medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, head toxicoligist and how they solved one of New York City’s infamous Jazz Age murders.

James Patterson, writer of numerous fictional detective stories, tries his hand at forensic anthropology with his book, The Murder of King Tut (2009). Patterson and his co-writer Martin Dugard, have sifted through stacks of evidence – X-rays, files, forensic clues – to re-tell the story of King Tut’s brief life and death.

The Gardner Heist: A True Story of the World’s Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser is an account of art detective Harold Smith’s near obsession with this major Boston art theft and what was done (or perhaps wasn’t done) to solve this crime and return some major works of art to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Meg