Memories of the Books

Flipping the through the pages,

Finding memories hidden there,

In script of names, dates and events,

In hidden postcards, bits of ribbons, and marks,

Of the book, makes the collection,

Mean more than the works of literature.



Recalling the stories found in the literature,

Recalls time and memory of a life outside the pages,

Those stories of the reader are the real collection,

Moments unwritten, and only experienced by those there,

Of times with grandparents and loved ones, remarks,

Said and unsaid, remembrance, and events.



It makes me sad to forget the events,

Of my unlived life, as I depend on literature,

To tell a story I have not myself yet lived, making no marks,

Upon the life and land of the world, my pages,

Are unwritten and empty, nothing is there,

Help me make a new collection.



It makes me angry when my collection,

Of memories shelf upon shelf, imaginary events,

Twined with those of the real, all collected there,

Are seen as a waste of space and literature,

Packrat's overcompensation, too many pages,

Too little control or space marks,



Of an unruly life, it also marks,

My love for those found in my collection,

My friends are found in those pages,

Real and imaginary; and the events,

Of those stories, truth and lie in literature,

Also find the dreams there.



Always you can find me there,

Lost in the dream found within marks,

Of black and white type in the literature,

There are many adventures captured in the collection,

Many lives and extraordinary events,

To be found and lived out in those pages.



Find all kinds of memories there in my collection,

Those in marks of reality and those whimsical events,

Found in the literature as you turn the pages.



Note: This poem is written in the Sestina style which is a poem consisting of six stanzas each containing six lines and one stanza containing three lines. Each six line stanza repeats the end words of the first stanza but in a different order. The three line stanza also uses all six end words, but uses one word in the middle of the line and one word at the end of the line.