In-Habit
"I'm a product of
many books." –
Oluwasegun Romeo Oriogun
book held open: a time-travel
ship
whose denizens have journeyed
far
and long in hibernation
turn the page, these
characters
emerge blinking into torchlight
by which you read at night
do they tame moth and
mosquito
harness them with invisible
saddles, joust and jaunt
and re-enact there in your
dark-
filled room? a book held
open:
far more powerful than
any jinni stoppered in a
bottle,
each line has its own
presence,
each page characters in
residence. romeo, be careful
how
closely you hold them when
you
read, you could be taking
ghosts in when you breathe
Laura
M. Kaminski (Halima Ayuba) grew up
in northern Nigeria, went to school in New Orleans, and currently lives in
rural Missouri. More information about her and her poetry is available athttps://arkofidentity.wordpress.com/about/
Lovely poem, Laura. Many long dead authors I feel are amongst my closest friends.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Neil. I know exactly what you mean!
DeleteSo, so gently beautiful. It's what I've come to expect from Laura, from Romeo.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words, John. When Romeo dropped that line, I simply couldn't resist.
DeleteBeautiful and perfectly captures the wonder and joy of reading! I love that last line "you could be taking ghosts in when you breathe."
ReplyDeleteThank you, Robin. This one was fun to write!
Deleteloved the last stanza in particular, what a build up! lovely poem!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sheikha!
DeleteVery nice poem indeed,magical moments captured,best wishes,angelee
ReplyDeleteYou have built the piece perfectly. Great finale. Best wishes Ralph.
ReplyDeleteThis surely gives cause, and pause, to reflect.
ReplyDeleteStunning closure.
Reflection. This is good for us to do every time we can. Nice work, Laura. Thank you for sharing and continued blessings!
ReplyDelete-MJ(www.tgbtgpublictions.com)
Thank you all so much! I am most grateful to be included in the community here at Whispers. - Laura
ReplyDeleteLovely, lovely poem. I do think these "ghosts" that come to us in books, the ones we take inside us, stay there, change us in ways we can't really articulate.
ReplyDelete