Museum Artifact

(Photo by Mike Hall)

A page from the past is shown from this book called “English Grammar” by Kate Smith, Ethel B. Magee with S.S. Seward, Jr.,  published in 1928  by The Athenaeum Press of Ginn and Company in Boston.

I heard on the radio recently that Barnes and Noble was closing even more stores around the country in the shadow of the closing of Borders book stores.  The announcer said there was something about books which was comforting. This got me thinking.  I admit I probably could not  many afford books at the B & N stores, and the Half Price Books Store is to more my liking. They also have real records there too.  I still have a few books from college, because I paid for them, they still may have some informational value (Photography books are that way), and perhaps they were a part of my past.  It may be ironic I am writing a blog about this topic on the Internet, but when I get confused and such, a poem sometimes helps resolve the problem somehow.  I imagined how in the not so distant future 40 to 50 years from now, books became obsolete. This is a basis of several novels, too.  I have no time for novels, and arrived at this poem, “Museum Artifact.”

Museum Artifact

I saw a thing I used to read in school.
It was a book along with other
volumes shelved in storage in a
wooden book case behind the glass.
They had lots of information, and
they didn’t need batteries, nor did
they need to be plugged in to operate.
Some books had thin paper back, and
were small enough to fit in a pocket.
They took me to places where I had
never been without leaving the room,
and I wasn’t looking at any color videos.
Words inspired my imagination.  Back then,
some people had quite a few bound books
In elaborate personal libraries,
but now they are gone in the electronic
age, and I can only use this gadget that
I really don’t like at all.

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