Photo credit: Ian Orion
Compiled here is a memory/dream guide to the first books of poems that I fell in love with, books that taught me something beyond the single-minded lessons of a particular neighborhood in a particular time. In my mind, the neighborhood of Lents was full of family, rain, and beauty, but also ambient violence and anger. Lately, I have become uneasy with the idea that books “can save your life." Maybe that’s because there are so many examples of them not saving lives. People are killed every day, while by their beds a book lies on a table, a stack of books on the floor. Books lying still at the bottom of their backpack while they are walking home, listening to music and not hearing what the cop is shouting. But in the end I think I can agree with some form of this sentiment, because books do change your life...