Poet Rita Dove: her grandma & libraries
“…she knew that words carried their treasures
like a grape clusters around its own juice.
She loved words; she thought a book was a monument
to the glory of creation and a library . . .
But my grandmother was nobody’s fool
and she’d tell anybody smart enough to listen:
‘Don’t let a little pain stop you
try as hard as you can
every minute you are given or else sit
down and shut up’…My grandmother was only four feet ten
and when she entered a room even the books
came to attention. Giants come in all sizes. Sometimes an
institution breathes–just like a library. Sometimes a moment is a
monument.”
