Thrift Shop Finds

I love books. I love books more than I love fabric. Well maybe not quite that much, but they're a close second.

Actually let me restate that: I love second hand books. I love hunting through a heavy shelf in a thrift shop for well loved books, finding a forgotten bookmark treasure or vintage library card. One of these had tickets for a draw to be held in December 1989. I guess they didn't win.

This week I found these books at my local Goodwill - a great find. My high school had the entire collection of New Canadian (NC) paperbacks, these same editions from the 1970s with abstract paintings on the front.

Margaret Lawrence is an amazing Canadian author, if you haven't read her yet I strongly recommend "A Bird in the House" and "The Stone Angel". I haven't read "A Jest of God" yet but it's next on my list.

The Margaret Atwood "You Are Happy" book of poetry was my absolute favourite in high school. Some of the poems I had read so much that I was able to recite them from memory as I was reading them. I was so excited to find a first edition, and one in great shape too.

Anais Nin is of course classic and the Stephen Leacock book - well I just liked the design. Sometimes you just have to buy a book if it's going to look good on your shelf.

As cool as I think the e-readers are, I will never own one because they don't come with the dusty library smell, you can't sit and look at the titles and they won't make for very fun thrifting in the future.

Boo, Forever

Yesterday @sleepingpoet asked what our favourite poem was, which was a nice diversion from the media madness that is Michael Jackson. I have three poems that are dear to my heart for three different reasons but my absolute favourite is Boo, Forever by Richard Brautigan. It is short and sweet and the first time I read it it took my breath away.



Boo, Forever
by Richard Brautigan

Spinning like a ghost
on the bottom of a
top,
I'm haunted by all
the space that I
will live without
you.

I love poetry and writing, maybe not the way I did when I was younger, when I dreamed of being an english major. (Something I'm glad I didn't do now since I'd be in the exact same situation minus $20k or so...) I logged in to an old old forum where I used to post, many lives ago, and found some of my own poems this morning. It's kind of amazing to me to read these words now and realize that I put them together. I always wanted to make a chapbook, maybe I should.

once swaying, she says no more,
can't find a voice of reason in the
broken floral dishes that
line the dirty floor, and

ohlove, how you did once,
those lace covered legs danced around me
so beautifully, grass stained
to fall on bended knee,
pointing straight to heaven
singing stars for me, and

ohlove, this other side of lonely
is starting to fade, to cave
in on me.
- 2003 (for my grandmother, who had died of cancer that winter.)

There is more here, if you're curious too.

If you are poetry inclined please share you favourites (yours or others) in the comments, I would love to read them.