Confessions of a Bibliophile

Books Books layers of Books,

Filling the shelves the Tables and Nook.

Laid to the floor the Mantle and Sill,

There’s many a place I’m willing to fill.                                                Betjeman, Housman, Larkin and Clare,

The ‘Complete Dylan Thomas’ sits by the chair.

As the Library Shelf now strains under weight,

From the jumble of Works by the Good and the Great.

Varied tales of Daring-Do,

Romantic Trysts and Horror too.

Hemming, Hugo, Austen and Twain,’

My Companions and Friends of literary fame.

And should you ask, ‘Where on this Earth,

Is Hartford, Dispur, Concord and Perth’?

I’d pull from the shelf an Atlas of weight,

And furnish all things,Population and State.

Biography, Discography all manner of facts,

Are easily at hand, if it’s knowledge you lack.

And the Historical Buff will soon find their joy,

In varied tomes that I employ.

For I’ve traveled far the whole day through,

To the U.S.A. and Kathmandu.

To Centuries past and loitered there,

And never once left, my living-room Chair.