Inside Used Books
David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving |
The name written in pen on the inside said “Margot.” This was a copy of Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry by Billy Collins, a 2003 anthology of different contemporary poets. There were a few sporadic notes scribbled throughout the book. One page was dogeared beside a longer poem entitled “Mrs. Midas” by Carol Ann Duffy. Then, wedged between random pages in the middle of the book was a printout from the internet. In an email dated 11/3/2024 at 11:48 AM, a longtime English professor (not named Margot) sent a poem to a nonprofit worker (also not named Margot). For context, the nonprofit worker had 2,054 unread emails. In any case, the professor sent a 2014 poem by the essayist Wendell Berry, which was partially cutoff by the printout. Berry’s writing was not featured in the book otherwise. Below, I include the full text of Berry’s poem as well as a child’s drawing found on the last page, underlining the many lives this book has passed through.
Sabbath Poem (Untitled), by Wendell Berry
Slowly, slowly, they return
To the small woodland let alone:
Great trees, outspreading and upright,
Apostles of the living light.
Patient as stars, they build in air
Tier after tier a timbered choir,
Stout beams upholding weightless grace
Of song, a blessing on this place.
They stand in waiting all around,
Uprisings of their native ground,
Downcomings of the distant light;
They are the advent they await.
Receiving sun and giving shade,
Their life’s a benefaction made,
And is a benediction said
Over the living and the dead.
In fall their brightened leaves, released,
Fly down the wind and we are pleased
To walk on radiance, amazed.
O light come down to earth, by praised!
