Hello and welcome to another installment of “Pick-a-Poem,” which is what we call it around here when we feature a new poem each week for you to read and discover. We hope that this opens you up to the world of poetry, or adds even more poetry in your life if you already read some. Either way, here’s today’s poem! This week we feature Becoming a Book, written by Howard Schwartz. This poem comes to the blog from Poetry Daily, which is a great place to start if you’re discovering more poetry.
According to his page on Poetry Daily, Howard Schwartz has written four book of poetry, Vessels, Gathering the Sparks, Sleepwalking Beneath the Stars, and Breathing in the Dark. He has also written Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, which won the National Jewish Book Award, and Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales.
Becoming a Book, by Howard Schwartz
not too bad an incarnation.”
—Jorge Luis Borges
All these years,
without knowing it,
I’ve been preparing for my rebirth
as a book.Each day
I try to condense
light and darkness
into one more page.At night
I count the pages left
before it’s time
to come back.Now that my destiny is known,
we need not say goodbye.
I’ll be there guarding you
from a shelf.I hope you enjoyed this week’s featured poem! For more of these, check out our archives.
– Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan
