The aged librarian’s advice

Treat every book with care,
between its pages rests:
a universe
a sacred crypt
a piece of you and everyone
a place to meet or be alone.

Enter every book with awe,
remember how
you used to bring to bed a flashlight
with your book.

Fear books that makes it hard to sleep,
filled with nightmares and excitements,
but fear even more
the boring books
that turn your brain to tapioca.

Bring books as company,
as friends and foes,
confide, confront your books
but don’t forget to put them down
and talk to the people that you meet.

Be book yourself, and fill your days
with sense, with syllables and sentences
with pages, paragraphs, be bold
and live (or dream),
your own adventures.

And when you cease to breathe
know well
that every book can not be read.

Man, Sitting, Reading a Book by Vincent van Gogh

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