We made a trip to the big city on Friday to get the last load of boxes and packing paper we need for the move. Yahoo, I am almost there. The living room, dining room, guest room, studio, den, basement, garden sheds and family room are all packed and ready to go. The kitchen will be next, and then all I will have to deal with will be last minute items in bedroom and bathroom just before we leave. I can't do most of that stuff until the last week, so now I can relax a bit and catch my breath for a few days before the final push of moving day.
Tomorrow my sister comes to visit for a couple of days, and then at the end of the week I have a date to meet friends for lunch to say good bye, so things will be busy, but not with packing. Ah, what a nice change that will be.
After we loaded up the CRV with paper and boxes on Friday, we treated ourselves to a trip to Chapters and that is always fun for me. It is one of my favourite spots to spend an hour or two and on this day I needed "the fix" of a nice long visit to a bookstore. The cardboard and cobwebs were getting to me and I was a bit ahead of schedule in that department, so I could afford this luxury. The first step inside the door at Chapters is the best isn't it? The smell of coffee is thick in the air and when it mixes with the fragrance of ink and paper it is a combination that can't be beat. AC laughs at me, but I always stop just inside the door and inhale deeply and almost chew on that most marvellous aroma.
After my sensory delight at the door, I headed straight for the bargain books and leisurely browsed through them while AC headed over to the computer section. I saw one book titled "The Browser's Ecstasy – A Meditation on Reading". Hmmm, that looks interesting I said to myself, so I picked it up. It had been $35 and was now on sale for 99¢. You just know that I tucked that book under my arm and took it with me for a closer look.
From the bargain section I headed over the poetry shelves to look for a book Lynn mentioned to me. It wasn't in stock, but I did find another treasure waiting for me there. A new Mary Oliver book! Oh joy, just what I needed. Really! All my poetry books were already packed, (big mistake) and I felt like I was going into withdrawal. Lynn posted a couple of short poems on his blog and they were like a drop of water on my tongue, but I needed a long deep drink not just a drop or two of poetry. I was contemplating finding the box I had packed my books in and digging them out again.
So you see why I was so excited to find a NEW Mary Oliver book. I didn't even look at the price, I just knew that it was coming home with me, and it did! The 99¢ book also made the trip to the cash desk with me and will enjoy a cozy spot in my new library.
I sat reading the Mary Oliver book last night and it felt to my spirit like melted chocolate feels in my mouth. Absolutely delicious! AC walked past me as I sat all curled up on the couch and said "Are you into your new book already?"
"Oh yes" I said "I feel like I just got a box of luscious dark chocolates and I can't stop eating them. Mmmmmm good."
I am not gobbling the book though. I am savouring each phrase, and letting the words sit in my mind and slowly melt and seep into the deeper parts of me. After all the dusty dry cardboard that has been clogging my senses for the past two months, the taste of this rich melted chocolate is magnificent.
Here, sample a little piece for yourself.
The Morning Walk
There are a lot of words meaning thanks.
Some you can only whisper.
Others you can only sing.
The pewee whistles instead.
The snake turns in circles,
The beaver claps his tail
on the surface of the pond.
The deer in the pinewood stamps his hoof.
Goldfinches shine as they float through the air.
A person, sometimes will hum a little Mahler.
Or put arms around old oak tree.
Or take out lovely pencil and notebook to find a few
touching, kissing words.
"Plain as a needle, a poem may be, or opulent as the shell of the channeled whelk, or the face of the lily, it matters not; it is a ceremony of words, a story, a prayer, an invitation, a flow of words that reaches out and, hopefully, without being real in the way that the least incident is real, is able to stir in the reader a real response."
'…for poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry."
Mary Oliver
4 comments:
I went to a Chapters bookstore in London, Ontario once. I was attending a two week business executive boot camp at the university. They gave us Saturday afternoon off from our studies, and before I knew it I was roaming around inside the local Chapters. You brought it all back to me.
It sounds like you hit the mother lode--a good book for $34 off the cover price. But best of all you found a new book by your favorite poet. Two of my favorite novelists have new books out which I have not gotten to, but soon ...
I went down to the lake this afternoon and dawdled over my Chinese poetry book. I felt the same way as you. It was like savoring fine and rich chocolate.
I like that poem, even if you are very much like a silly cat that we all know and love.
Cuppa, I am glad that you have found some time for yourself!
Enjoy your visit with your sister and friends!
Lynn - I think we were in the same Chapters store. How neat.
AC - I didn't even know that Rocky liked poetry.
Gina - Thanks. I am really looking forward to sharing a cup of tea with my sister and laughing a lot. She always has such funny stories to tell.
Katt - Yes I do remember that, and the best way to enjoy chocolates is to take yout time and let them melt slowly in your mouth instead of hardly tasting them. Such a good way to enjoy life too. Take your time and enjoy each and every minute of it.
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