Dear Reader:
If you are a regular reader of this article, you will know that Russell & District Regional Library frequently hosts events on Wednesday evenings in the Russell Library Gallery. On May 29th, we held space for an event we call Candle Lit Poetry Reading. While this is not the kind of event that results in standing room only attendance, at least not so far, we persist in having these poetry reading evenings because poetry has such great potential to create meaning and connection. May 29th set out to be an evening event like so many others, groovy but not life altering. And then Anonymous arrived, followed, shortly thereafter, by Veronica Havelange. Let me just say this: “never underestimate the outcome of an event based on the number in attendance.” I’m sure we have all heard how one person can change the world. To be clear, I am not suggesting that the three of us changed the world. However, Poetry changed three people for an hour at the Library Gallery. Veronica began her reading of Seven Days by Gary Dunford1. Seven Days is the kind of poem that can bring one to tears. Next, Anonymous read Jim Harrison’s “Lost2.” “Lost” is about different things to different readers, I am sure. When Anonymous finished reading, we were all silent. And then, it was clear, this evening’s gathering was not by accident. You see, Veronica has an elephant tattooed along then length of her shin and Harrison’s poem references an elephant. Such a coincidence may seem inconsequential, but, for us three, these were signs. We were where we were supposed to be. Seven Days is bleak and apocalyptic, so is Lost, but in different ways. We were awash in the profundity of poetry, so many questions making the air thick around us. My choice of poem for the evening was one by Mary Oliver called How Would You Live Then?3 By this time, it seems safe to say, we were all wondering how we would live. How should we live? How could we live? Mary Oliver to the rescue with her poem about things more meaningful than gold. That is when the serendipitous nature of the events that conspired to bring just us three to the Library Gallery that Wednesday evening became clear: amongst the seagulls dying and the lost souls, there will always be a remnant left to reminds us of what is important. Never give up, look up instead.
Please consider attending our next Russell Library Gallery event. One never knows what will transpire then.
To enjoy the aforementioned poems in their entirety, please see footnotes below.
The following is a list of Binscarth Library books for your reading enjoyment, curated by Hilarie Recknel, Librarian.
Non-Fiction:
101 Essays The Will Change The Way You Think by Brianna West
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Fiction:
Where The Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah
Verity by Colleen Hoover
A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
Fantasy:
A Court of Thornes and Roses series by Sarah J. Mass
Children’s Books:
Cuddle by Beth Shooshan
I’ve Loved You Since Forever by Hoda Kotb
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, And The Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Woods
For an excellent selection of books stop in and visit us in Binscarth Library and Russell Library. For more information on any of our events, please contact the Russell Library at 204-773-3127 / ruslib@mymts.net or Binscarth Library at 204-532-2447 / binslb@mymts.net or message us on Facebook. Please visit our website at https://russell.mb.libraries.coop for more
information.
Happy Reading, Until Next Time,
The Library Ladies
1Seven Days by Gary Dunford
in the beginning,
man created the mudhole and the marsh
damming streams for viaducts
and routing waters for his own benefit
waters, white as crystal, moving through trenches
trickling through makeshift reed piping
splashing clean into clay bowls
bubbling to do man’s bidding
and it was the morning and the evening of the first day
and the seagulls were dying
on the second day,
man created the slaughterhouse and the zoo
and the wild animals of the earth
which had wandered at will across the planet
watched man from behind wire mesh
scruffy lions with sad faces
and elephants, their bottoms calloused from sitting on cement
and it was the morning and the evening of the second day
and the seagulls were dying
on the third day,
the buffalo disappeared. simply disappeared.
and across the pampas
safaris, $495 per person, sought out exotic creatures
to mount in rec rooms or multiply in cages
and the ice floes ran red
and the jungle monkeys reeled in terror
and it was the morning and the evening of the third day
and the seagulls were dying
on the fourth day,
man created the sewer and sump
and pumps to pipe sewer to sump and sump to sewer at incredible
cost
to nose and pocket
and the pumps pumped
and the sumps drained
and the sewers flowed
into creeks and lakes
and every drop of sewage makes
an ocean spreading across the world
the universal apocalypse
and it was the morning and the evening of the fourth day
and the seagulls were dying
on the fifth day,
man crated and canned atomic wastes
and made up the word megaton
packing the wastes in rusty old drums and concrete caissons
cramming biological uglies into old trains
that run on undetermined schedules
across the landscape
and somewhere, sunken tanks of arsenic
are cloaked in barnacles
and rust slowly in salt water
and now and then, on october afternoons
underground explosions occur
and smiling spokesman describe them as necessary and safe
while desert floors collapse
and islands tremble
and the smiling spokesman says
the san andreas fault
remains faultless
and it is the morning and the evening of the fifth day
and the seagulls are dying
on the sixth day,
man created the additive
which differed in name, but never in purpose
and was gleefully installed in cereals and fertilizers
soft drinks and cookies
field and bug sprays
creams and cosmetics
it was added to everything man ate or drank
was added to smokestacks
and sewage
and lakes
and eventually,
even the additives had additives
and counter-antidotes to combat the counter-pollutants
and even the experts gave up explaining
exactly what the additives were to accomplish
and it was the morning and the evening of the sixth day
and the seagulls were dying
on the seventh day,
there was quiet over all the earth
except for the lapping of waves
and the bubbling of storm drains
and the seagulls were dying
and the plankton
and the oceans
and the atmosphere
and the trees were dying
and man
rested
2 Lost by Jim Harrison
When hunting I became lost,
I walked for hours.
All the ridges looked the same—
the snow had a thick crust
but not enough to hold my weight.
I crossed my path twice.
It began to get dark, my sweat
turned cold, when between two huge
charred pine stumps I thought I saw
myself. I raise my rifle to shoot
this ghost but then my father spoke.
3How Would You Live Then? by Mary Oliver
What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
flew in circles around your head? What if
the mockingbird came into the house with you and
became your advisor? What if
the bees filled your walls with honey and all
you needed to do was ask them and they would fill
the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just
past your bedroom window so you could listen
to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if
the stars began to shout their names, or to run
this way and that way above the clouds? What if
you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves
began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang
from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw
that the silver of water was brighter than the silver
of money? What if you finally saw
that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day
and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were
more precious, more meaningful than gold?