I stole the complete works of Shakespeare from my Jr. High library. It was huge sin, but I was resentfully certain I would not get caught. I might have checked it out but in all my years at the k-12 Christian school I\u2019d never once been shown how to use the library and didn\u2019t know how to borrow anything from it.<\/p>\n
I was certain that they would never miss it. And I needed it.<\/p>\n
My brother had come back home after his adventures in Jr. College and tossed some Shakespeare plays at me, little single play paperbacks.\u00a0 I ripped through them and asked for more.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you find them hard to read?\u201d my big brother asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy? They sound just like the Bible.\u201d The school did at least tutor me in King James\u2019 English.<\/p>\n
The all-caps cover and foreign spelling of the name. I picked it up and opened it.<\/p>\n
What was this? WHAT WAS THIS?<\/p>\n
Poetry. I sat down right away and kept reading. The words, the images, the feeling.<\/p>\n
This time I asked.\u00a0 Nicholai Ivanovich happily loaned it to me. These lines required solitude, a precious and rare commodity. I carried it with me for weeks and read it over and over in empty staircases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
John Donne\u2019s flea.<\/p>\n
Tennyson\u2019s Memoriam.<\/p>\n
When I found Keats Ode to a Grecian Urn I disintegrated.
\n\u201cBeauty is truth, truth beauty, –that is all
\nYe know on earth and all ye need to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
So I hide. I am afraid to have my world rocked on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
Coward.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to run from this immortality.<\/p><\/div>\n
There are more lines to read and re-read.<\/p><\/div>\n
Best of all, not all the poets are dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I stole the complete works of Shakespeare from my Jr. High library. It was huge sin, but I was resentfully certain I would not get caught. I might have checked it out but in all my years at the k-12 … Continue reading