Books (Gerald Stern)

I feel like I should know the poet Gerald Stein, but I think I am confusing him for a different author. Ah well, no matter, his poem today is truly a short story.

A story of the frigid qualities of winter and of walking in winter - how your eyes freeze and your breath catches heavy in the air. I like that this poem seems to be just a telling of the physicality of winter, but for that one almost-hidden line about "dirty tears". There is an emotional story here. The library - earlier seen as just a warm hole to escape the weather - suddenly takes on the vestige of a sanctuary. What a burrow a book is - escape from the physical cold and escape from the emotional storms of life, as well.

What a wonder a book is!

 

Favorite line: "or maybe it was / reversus"