What is a book? Books begin as ideas and dreams, Smelted in the crucible of the writer’s mind Visions dancing, swirling, jolting senses, igniting fire. The dreams gain power to entertain, inform and inspire. A book is born after long incubation Write, rewrite, rewrite again and again An awesome labor fraught with stress, joy and pain The words often resist and wrestle and complain. Then The writer and the words agree The story is told or the lesson conveyed The whirring, clanking, print machine casts its inky hue Bound pages, neat rows of words, a writer’s dream comes true And Then Books keep lonely people company They keep the record of men and nations of men Mothers and children and other people as well, Take adventure by book, by the stories writers tell A book is an all-night college cram. Fueled by pizza and coffee and soda Under a pup tent’s ridge, a flashlight, a boy, and a book Become, Sinbad, Sherlock Holmes, the black knight’s rook When a reader falls depressed or sad, A book from the shelf offers comfort and glad, For motivating, teaching and inspiring, Books are the tools most worth admiring. Life without books, without words in great tomes, Would be boring and dark and unworthy of living, We know in the beginning, he created the earth and heaven Now, we’ve know it was a book he read on day seven. And There has never been a crime so heinous, A deed as evil as the burning of books, While a book, set on fire is most certainly aflame, It’s no longer a beacon of truth or a crutch for the lame. It is a truth to be known and truth to be told, Books that are opened and most often read, Are the brightest, and most beautiful guiding lights, That offer hope and knowledge and awesome insight. So Take away my big fine home Remove my gold watch and charm Take away my TV I won’t have a another look Just leave me with my whiskey and a really good book. Michael A. Cox 2005 Glyph Awards