Ideas

Ok, here’s the thing,
I like to cook,
I like to garden, I like sleeping too,
     but don’t do it well.
What I really like
is to read.

Television is a bore
all that crime, and corruption . . .
     and that’s just the news.
It’s Ok for emergencies, but . . .
for real entertainment
give me a book

Newspapers for news please,
every other day only.
But books for fun,
    enlightenment,
        education,
             re-lax-a-tion.

Hardback or paper preferred,
real books with spines and pages
to turn with your finger —
No batteries, no cords —
carry them anywhere, and . . .
no limit to my imagination.

Books are my passport
that carry me to faraway places
for adventures mysterious, exciting for sure.
They introduce me to ideas,
challenging, mind bending,
astounding ideas.

Books that teach,
    history, cooking, and gardening of course.
But I want theology, science, and politics too
I want to meet people different from me, who
open my mind, my heart, horizons new.

I also want books that are fun.
Cozy mysteries to curl up with
    to hunt down the culprit.
Poetry from Euripides to Frost
    to sing songs in my mind.
Adventure books to carry me to
    the stars and lands of the heart
and back.

Books are my ticket to
lands and ideas I can’t travel to.
They give me doorways and roads,
highways to many to name,
adventures, exciting, insightful and new.

You can keep your TV,
Your Kindle, and phone.
Give me a book, paper or hard,
I will be reading when your
batteries die.

Ruth Jewell, ©May 25, 2020