Reading is Fun!

After reading James and the Troublesome Trucks or Percy Covered in Chocolate for the millionth time, sometimes I need a little break. That's when this former English major drags out her dog-eared, espresso stained, worn and battered second edition of (drumroll please) The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. Love, love, love this book. All 1865 pages. I don't have my college diploma, my parents have that (as well they should, they paid for it!) but I have this book. If you think you're not into poetry, read Amanda Barker by Edgar Lee Masters:

Henry got me with child,
Knowing that I could not bring forth life
Without losing my own.
In my youth therefore I entered the portals of dust.
Traveler, it is believed in the village where I lived
That Henry loved me with a husband's love,
But I proclaim from the dust
That he slew me to gratify his hatred.

In just these eight lines Miss Amanda becomes a real person. I can hear her voice. I know what she looks like. I can see her spirit leaning against her gravestone telling her story to anyone who passes by.

Class dismissed for now. It seems that little star has fallen out of the sky and Dora must get her back to her friend the moon. Rapidamente!