This week at WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge, the challenge is to take an Adventure–literal or metaphoric. I’m going with the latter and adding a poem. This will do double duty as my post for Monday Meanderings in an uncommonly busy time for us.
On Reading
These days I spend my evenings in Ethiopia.
Torrential rains flood the shores of the Blue Nile.
I cut for stone in Operating Theater 3,
outside I hear the blaze of a failed coup d’etat.
Dear Africa, I’ve trod the single file paths of
leafy jungles, ‘neath trees of Poisonwood,
through forests that devour, that feed on lives
of those misled in service of God’s holy name.
With Little Bee I, too, would flee to distant shores,
escape atrocities (only to be hurled once again upon your mercy.)
From Haiti also I’ve sought refuge. The slave of Valmorain set free but
lost to love forever and to my land, the island far beneath the sea.
As well would I take leave from Oklahoma’s dust
only to be lost to greater desperation in the land of wrathful vines.
A silent (though not passive) observation, I stand by, witness
the demise of hope, the emptiness of Gatsby and Buchanan
or see a tree spring forth from wretched poverty in Brooklyn’s
tenements where branches spread if roots grow strong and deep.
For those who read there is no place forbidden,
no mountain that cannot be scaled, no culture
left forgotten, no life condemned to end in an obscure whimper.
No era will I leave untouched if I but open up a book and read.
I really like the first image with the old camera there on top of the books. the poem fits the theme quite well also. there are very few places (real or imaginary) that you can’t travel to when you have a book at your finger tips.
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Great take on the Challenge theme, Victoria, and I like how you weave your references with subtlety!
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[…] Victoria C. Slotto, Author Armchair Adventure–Monday Meanderings and Weekly Photo Challenge […]
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oh i love how reading takes us to the furthest away places in no time… wish i had more time… ugh… 12 hour days in the office at the moment… but the next book is just around the corner…smiles
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You’re so right: books are opportunities to learn, to travel, to experience wild adventure. Your poem is quite a library!
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Your response to the challenge is very creative. I like your poem.
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i need to spend some time on your book shelf…ha….grad school and school are full bore right now so my pleasure reading has been put aside for another 5 weeks…ack…i need a vacation into the pages…smiles.
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I love the picture and the poem… all those wonderful books, my favorite way to travel.
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