To Those Who Wrote the Prose
There’s a universe in my library
Where I often rest within,
Beginning with cosmology
Where the mystery of life begins...
In space and time in books you’ll find
On a shelf upon a wall,
Near biology and chemistry
Where molecules reign supreme and small.
Compared to Homer, Sappho, Shakespear, Keats
And Henry David Thoreau,
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson
And a multitude of other giant minds that glow.
In countless pages of the past
Through history long and gone,
From the dawning of the first sunrise
To the tune of a Bob Dylan song.
From Lucy’s bones and Neanderthal homes
With pictures once drawn in caves,
Spirit-filled, the hunted - killed,
Not unlike us today.
And all the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods,
Pharaohs, kings and Moses’ rod,
Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Sikh,
Muslim, Taoist, and Jew, all speak.
From books on the shelves of heaven and hell
And a Kingdom still to come,
When the curtain falls upon us all
With no place left to run.
From the Maker and par-taker in all
We see, think, say and do,
From the moon and stars to who we are
And all things old and new.
In books by the score on politics and war
And the lust to conquer all,
From Thermopylae to Trafalgar
Where the French fleet took its fall.
Or the Thirty years war when religious scores
Crossed borders from town to town,
Left not a trace of love or grace
In the corpses scattered ‘round.
And from Constantine’s Milvian Bridge,
And Hastings to Bunker Hill,
Appomattox, Gettysburg,
Shiloh and Chancellorsville.
While the Battles of the Somme,
The Marne, Ypres and Verdun
Are told in all the books and pages
Of World War One.
Continuing through the next world war,
Korea, Viet Nam,
The Middle East, Israel/Palestine,
Iraq, Afghanistan.
Where all the Kings Horsemen
And all the Kings Men
Couldn’t bring the countless dead
Back to living again.
Still turning more pages
And scanning the shelves,
The list lingers on
From atoms to seashells…
From how to paint fruit, trees and flowers
To learning to play guitar,
Bake homemade breads and birthday cakes
And follow the North Star…
To astrology, numerology
And Technology beyond belief:
“AI” thinking, the Titanic sinking
Down in the cold, dark, deep…
Ocean of humanity’s
History, mysteries and sciences galore,
Philosophy, psychology,
Mythology and lore.
Where this mind meanders curiously
Among these pages I peruse,
Filled with wonder of the long ago
And learn of things anew.
Lifting this mind towards more sublime
Thoughts inside my head,
With thanks to those who wrote the prose
Of every page I’ve ever read.
© Terrell Martin, 12/7/2024
Copyright © Terrell Martin | Year Posted 2024
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