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The bookstore and a Sunday Whirl

Hello Sunday Whirl! Haven’t seen you in a while.

Actually it’s been a while for a lot of things round here.

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Number one thing is Robbie is in Vancouver.

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Number two thing, we need more books!

Isn’t that the way it always is. I can never bring enough books from our library in Vancouver to our library in Oxfordshire and vice versa. Robert is reading thru the Wheel of Time series and he’s on book nine. The speed he reads at he’ll blast thru the remaining five books by next Tuesday! The only practical thing is to visit Dalyce in her magical book store and stock up.

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It’s lovely to hang out with Dalyce and chat for a while and find all the books our little hearts desire.

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Number three thing: it’s been so, so incredibly busy round here that I’ve started my Sunday whirl poem three Sundays in a row and haven’t finished a single one to post.

Well, I’m proud to say that there is whirl for this week; the effort of a couple hours this morning.  Thank you Brenda for the wonderful words to play with. Now to go visit all my whirly friends.

nebulous, bleak, cut, vision, timing, touch, hover
crush, opaque, blazing, torch, slab, breath

There was nothing said, there was no timing

You stayed in your room all day and wrote a “this is how I’m feeling” poem…this small and sacred piece of it… printed a hundred copies, and sold them at a “this is how I’m feeling” poetry stand out on the street for a quarter.

There was a summer day and there was your vision.
There were June bugs sunning themselves on the screen door. They hovered expectantly around the windows hoping to touch you in the cool of your room.

You read each cut of your intensity; your torch blazing undiminished even after multiple copies.
Virtue standing strong even as it was spat out of a slot over and over again in a mechanical burden that follows after you loaded the slab of paper and pressed one-zero-zero and the Print key

Your parents were proud holding their breath and peeking at you from behind the living room curtain.
“Our little girl breaks all the rules. How cute, how constructive” they said while you beamed optimism from your bleak little table where stacks of carefully arranged emotions gleamed under the sun.

You, to whom the answer came easily with only a bit of hair pulling and a few bitter post cards. You, who were all seeing and all knowing, who camped out by a stream in the heart of me until you knew your way around in the dark. You are still there, you are still made of that nebulous wilderness which cuts thru my darkness.

You looked down the road and saw the bends filled with a crush of sports cars and mini vans trickling in an opaque haze towards your emotional stand, pulled there by the magnetic force of your turbulence; your printed piece of art.

Quarter-filled hands hanging out of rolled down windows

Comments: 26

  • May 19, 2013
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    Oh my! thanks for introducing me to a little slice of book heaven, and in the same general-direction-to-me as Opus too. i shall be planning a trip soon 🙂
    Have a great sunday

  • May 19, 2013
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    A cute memory about writing your heart out in a poem and selling it at a street corner for quarters.:)

  • May 19, 2013
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    A good start for many
    Provided by a library
    One can never go wrong
    To join in the throng
    The crowd is disciplined
    The environment is clean

    Hank

  • May 19, 2013
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    What a delight to get touching young author story and a peek at a bookshop to die for.

  • Ann

    May 19, 2013
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    There is never enough books
    nor time to read books…
    I spent a lot of time in bookstores too
    I just love browsing on new books
    and there is something magical when reading,
    you get transported to another place, time and situation.

  • Catherine Llewellyn

    May 19, 2013
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    I don’t think these types of bookshop are actually made by anyone – they kind of materialise … and sometimes they appear in a street which wasn’t there before …. you’ve reminded me how much i used to love browsing in old bookshops in Reading of all places

  • May 20, 2013
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    “who camped out by a stream in the heart of me until you knew your way around in the dark.”. This is incredible. Insightful. It is so beautiful it breaks my heart.

  • May 20, 2013
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    That bookstore looks perfectly stuffed. What a lovely place to be!

  • May 20, 2013
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    Your photography is perfection with this delightful piece. Love it!

  • May 21, 2013
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    Your writing is absolutely outstanding I really enjoyed this!

  • May 21, 2013
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    Loved this work…the pictures and words both. I could actually breathe in the smell of books looking at your pictures. Heavenly!

  • May 21, 2013
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    Your photos and words remind me of the bookstore I used to manage. I loved the place and many who came there would tell me I had a dream job. In some ways that was true. I love the same line as Cheryl. What a beautiful way of expressing a depth of feeling that might leave one unable to speak. Beautiful,

    Elizabeth
    http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/mizfit-on-remembering/

  • May 21, 2013
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    Kindles will never replace real books for me. I love the piece and the photos. The part about writing about your feelings and selling them on the street corner had me hooked, Veronica. Really nice poem and it is good to see you back.

    Pamela

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