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Open Poetry #49
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Companions True
| Open Poetry #49 |
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Companions True |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa 
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COMPANIONS TRUE 3 January 2014 http://soundcloud.com/diana-van-den-berg-2/companions-true My walls breathe books . . . The colours and patterns of the spines greet me with their familiarity, tease me, taunt me, call me, smile reveries into my thinking, wash my soul with substance, and invite me again and again to throw open their covers and embrace their secrets and wander through their pages of the wild and free; and learn from the anguish of imprisoned and battered souls making music on their tattered heartstrings; find liquid gold pour out of words; and languishing poets lost in the melancholy of crumpled dreams; unravel the magical alpha and omega of Russia and the Golden Age of Greece, and the clicks of Zulu and its flow, like French, singing morning songs of mountain streams, giggling and gurgling over pebbles and rocks; delve into the personal lives of trees and birds and mammals, spiders and amphibians, and flower-whispers and all my other fauna and flora friends and even invasive aliens (know the enemy to protect your friends) plunge headlong into the mysteries and excitement of empowering and delicious computer code to pave a fun and user-friendly way for others earning their daily milk and honey; wander through and wonder at the pathway of the minds of Socrates via Plato, and Rousseau and Sartre and Camus and the legacy, songbird-rich and soulsearch-real, of Shakespeare’s quill . . . and sweep a loving eye over other hundreds just as revered marching in colourful procession around, above and below them . . . my books, my books, my precious books, my heart, my mind, my soul, my treasure-breath, each one unto its own, a friend, a loyal friend, a friend unto the very end . . . Owl |
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| © Copyright 2014 Diana van den Berg - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Rex Allen McCoy Member Elite
since 2000-01-30
Posts 2863Sippin a Timmy's in London |
I used to read a lot when I was younger, but haven't picked up a book now for ages. I started in my father's library, which was mostly Zane Grey and other Western novels. To this day I can remember the stories and excitement felt while entranced in their pages. The latest books I've read we're written by Wilber Smith... I like pirate yarns and nobody spins them better. ~ Enjoyed your poem this morning... Filled with love and enchantment and you definitely capture ones interest, start to finish  |
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Rex Allen McCoy Member Elite
since 2000-01-30
Posts 2863Sippin a Timmy's in London |
I checked out your link and heard you recite Companions True... Good job! |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you Rex, for your kind and interesting reply. Yes, books are treasure chests, to be unlocked and spilled into our souls. Owl |
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JerryPat2 Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975South Louisiana |
This is simply beautiful, Owl. As I am an avid reader myself I found myself dreamily reading your words of truth. I read avidly daily. Thank you for this wonderful homage to books. ~*~ All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own. ~*~ |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Jerry. Yes, WWWDWB? (What would we do without books?) Smiles. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Rex, when I replied to your first response, your second one wasn't showing yet. I just want to thank you for listening on SoundCloud and for letting me know you enjoyed it. Owl |
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Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049California |
Diana….Books have been true friends to me also. Thank you for the way you have appreciated yours. Hugs! |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Martie. I am glad you enjoyed it. Good to see you back! Owl |
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latearrival Member Ascendant
since 2003-03-21
Posts 5499Florida |
Diana/Owl.Thank you so much for this beautifully written and spoken post. Also for the choice of Walking by the Sea, piano and voice by Caroline Hamilton ~ the poem and song go together to define you. I also treasure my books and reopened Cry The Beloved Country and am still digesting A Sport of Nature by Nadine Gordimer.So many yet to read and learn and time is running out. Love to you for the love of nature you live by, Jo |
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secondhanddreampoet Member Ascendant
since 2006-11-07
Posts 6394a 'Universalist' ! |
grand testament to the finest of subjects (and 'companions'?!) Great writing !! College Library (an ‘impression’) Wisps of sunlight catch a few books by surprise... while the rest laugh and point from dim pigeon-holes at the foolish ‘human-ants’ that seek to tear at their hearts... (so young...so naïve!) They contain the thoughts, the hopes, the fears... the very souls of countless minds... that are no more... some great...some small; but, the books wear all their names with silent dignity...unspoken elegies to the dead. To hold the wisdom of the ages is their destiny... how honorable a fate!..... Mankind has no greater treasure to preserve... and no greater treasury!... --- b. e. adams |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Martyjo, especially for the mention of Alan Paton (Cry Beloved Country) and Nadine Gordimer, 2 South African writers of great note. Have a wonderful 2014 and love to you too. Owl |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, Bruce, for reading, the comment and the beautiful poem. Owl |
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Marchmadness Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271So. El Monte, California |
I have always loved to read and have many books, myself on a wide variety of subjects, so of course I love this wonderful poem and understand it all too well. Ida |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you for your response, Ida. Yes, what a treasure they are. It is so sad that the current generation (by far not their fault alone) don't know (for the most part) the wonder that is books. Owl |
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Krawdad Member Elite
since 2001-01-03
Posts 2597 |
I have many such companions - too many perhaps - bordering on addiction? I wish I didn't have to keep so many hidden in boxes - my shelves are full. And still, I go to my public library for more! I have friends who have switched to the electronic devices - I wonder if I will succumb as well . . . Thanks for your poem, Diana. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you for your reply, Ed. Perhaps you will succumb to using electronic devices, AS WELL AS, but not INSTEAD OF real books. I don't think you will ever leave the joy of reading, feeling, smelling a real book with real pages, behind - and I hope you won't. Once a book-lover, always a book-lover. I don't think that a book-lover can ever have too many books. Smiles. Owl |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
fine writing...I love to read...James |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Thank you, James. Yes, what wonders and worlds and minds we can explore when we read. Sometimes I, along with many others, am afraid that the youth of today will lose that joy and experience, but, conversely, in order to delve into the Internet, one needs to be able to read, and I have seen and heard of many young people enjoying the world of books as well as the Internet. This paradoxically contradicts what I replied to Ida, but simultaneously confirms it with a qualificatory addendum. Owl |
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