It’s Poetry Friday! Please visit Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. She has the round up links for all of our Poetry Friday posts. But she’s also featuring our 2023 Progressive Poem and an Inkling Fib challenge! Go visit!
   One of my National Poetry Month activities is to spend Wednesday afternoons with the writing community of The Well, “a collaboration of programs, practices, and connection at the intersection of arts and wellness.”Â
Each week is hosted by a different poet. It begins with a mindfulness meditation, followed by reading of the selected poem, and then includes a 10-12 minute live-write. We finish with optional sharing.
This first week was a memory-driven poetic inspiration, looking at “My First Memory (of Librarians)” by Nikki Giovanni.
If you’re interested in reading some of the other poems from this gathering, click here. My poem is below. And yes, the opening image at the top of this post really is The Big Box of Books! I still have it!
Patricia Franz is a kidlit writer and published poet. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
What a sweet memory and poem. I may just have to fix up a big box of books for myself.
I’m building one for my first grandchild now
🙂
What a sweet, nostalgic poem. There is such tenderness in your words. I am especially drawn to the line “or my big sister’s name in yellow crayon inside.” I love looking at books in second-hand stores or antique shops and wonder about the inscrptions inside. What is the reader’s story? I wonder what I would think if I saw your sister’s name. Thank you for introducing me to The Well and to Nikki Giovan’s poem.
Gosh I never thought about those stories-in-stories…the many small hands that may have held those previously used books.
🙂
What a splendid memory. A memory that has delivered an equally splendid poem, Patricia. I too recall the Pokey Little Puppy among my little golden book collection. I had to hide them from my little sister who at that time had a tendency to vandalize such treasures with crayons and such. When I look at your big box of books, I am reminded of my poet’s suitcase (an old suitcase that once belonged to my Grandfather). It’s locked and loaded with my personal favourite poetry books and i take it with me when visiting schools. Love the line- ‘I didn’t mind their tired spines.’
Ahhh…we must be close to the same age!
🙂
Such a sweet memory! It reminds me of our stacks of read-and-re-read comic books. They, too, gave comfort.
Oh gosh! I’d forgotten about the COMIC BOOKS! Those were such a treat to spend a dime on!
“And I didn’t have to share.” What a delicious memory, Patricia. I have given my children their own “big box of books” and now they can pass on to their children. We have the golden books at the used bookstore where I work and just received another group of them donated last week. Yes, The Poky Little Puppy was there!
Oh gosh! I think that book was quite popular from what I’m gathering!
Hi Patricia, I also have a copy of The Pokey Little Puppy Golden Book, along with a few other titles. When we moved last summer I donated many books to teachers I knew or our community center. I’ve saved our favorites (or, rather my favorites of past days when I read to my boys when they were young). A big box of books is a great idea to keep handy at Grandma’s house, too! Lovely post and memory inspired poem.
I cannot wait to have our little guy in my lap for reading time!
Oh, Patricia, thank you for this sweet memory of The Big Box of Books. I love that it’s not just any big box of books, but you had a designated THE Box. Giovanni’s poem is beautiful, as well. Thanks for sharing both of these treasures.
Thank you also for coming to my post and writing to the prompt I shared. I commented on your lovely questions at the Ethical ELA site.
I love the intersections we are making across poetry!
I think all of us writers and poets have those seminal experiences of the wonder of books, but it never gets old reading about the *specific* experiences. Your poem reminds me of “The Land of Counterpane,” in a book that I have powerful early connections with. “I didn’t mind their tired spines”–what a musical line! I do think The Big Box of Books maybe deserves a fresh new box of honor!😉
yes, the box is falling apart…but it SMELLS of my childhood!
How wonderful that you saved the box all this time, Patricia!
Not sure how long the box itself will last!
And the books are — more than tired (and -gasp! so inappropriate today with their white-bread stereotypes)!
Your poem just goes to show that exceptionally good thinking happens INSIDE the box, Patricia! And I love that you ‘didn’t have to share’, so hard to do when not feeling well. 🙂
I think the sharing stuff came from being one of five! So The Big Box was quite a treasure if you had it alone. 🙂