{"id":1520,"date":"2010-11-29T09:31:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T17:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/collinsunbound\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2010-11-29T09:31:57","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T17:31:57","slug":"from-ala-news-for-librarians-poem-by-hans-ostrom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/from-ala-news-for-librarians-poem-by-hans-ostrom\/","title":{"rendered":"From ALA News: "For Librarians" poem by Hans Ostrom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"forLibrarians\"A poem \u201cFor Librarians\u201dHans Ostrom, poet and professor of English at the University of Puget Sound, posted this poetic video tribute “For Librarians”<\/a> (3:03) to libraries and librarians. The poem itself was featured on a BBC Four program in 2008.<\/p>\n

***
\n***<\/p>\n

Imagine you can consider all ideas
\nAnd images represented by all words
\nAnd numbers in all libraries worldwide.
\nOpen the book of this consideration.
\nTouch the paper. See the illustration
\nOf you, reading, when you were ten
\nIn your local library. Turn
\nSeveral pages. Now read how you
\nAnd that other person ignited romance
\nIn, of all places, the stacks, third floor,
\nIn quite a different library. Snowflakes
\nBrushed against dark glass as you two
\nStood between PQ and PR.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now go to the index. Find \u201cpossibility.\u201d
\nLook up from the book. The librarian
\nWho looks away was watching you.
\nShe knows how to phrase the question
\nYou want answered.<\/em><\/p>\n

Librarians know where wisdom\u2019s stored.
\nThey catalogue the countless forms
\nOf silence and tell people what they
\nDidn\u2019t know they wanted to know.
\nThey treat the mentally fractured
\nAs if they\u2019re whole, the dull as if they\u2019re
\nSharp, Winter as if it\u2019s Summer.<\/em><\/p>\n

A band of sunlight angles through high
\nWindows, brightens shoes of a librarian,
\nWho knows the patron in the gray enormous
\nCoat will steal a book about sex or wiccans.
\nShe knows some Christians will steal books
\nDeemed Satanic, ignoring a commandment
\nAnd the homeless person sleeping in a chair.
\nShe knows some atheists treat Library as
\nChurch, so when she moves into shadows,
\nShe does so quietly. She worries for books.<\/em><\/p>\n

For the librarian knows books are easily burned,
\nRecycled, or digitized, reduced to oxygen, carbon,
\nSilicon, and such basic elements as hate and
\nBudgetary cuts. She wishes presidents of
\nThe United States would consult librarians
\nBefore going to war. It would save so much time,
\nSo many lives. She knows exactly which references
\nKnow how badly any war will go and how soon
\nCitizens come to loathe their leaders. She knows
\nHow to find stories about all the libraries
\nWiped out by war. She knows patrons who\u2019ve
\nBeen harmed by war. Sometimes they set off alarms.
\nSomeone asks her, \u201cCan you help me find out
\nIf I\u2019m related to Napoleon? \u201d Yes, \u201d she answers,
\n\u201cCome with me, please.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

All libraries may now gather inside invisible
\nElectrons. After closing time, books in Sweden
\nSend emails to maps in Chile. A librarian in Topeka
\nPosts a reply to one in Tokyo, adding to a blue thread
\nWrapped around the globe.<\/em><\/p>\n

As sincerely as librarians worry for books, for shelves,
\nFor catalogues, buildings, and best practices,
\nSo should we worry for librarians, for images and ideas.<\/em><\/p>\n

At a table in a library, a circle of light
\nLies on a book. The hand not writing turns
\nThe page, and something important happens.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hans Ostrom<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A poem \u201cFor Librarians\u201dHans Ostrom, poet and professor of English at the University of Puget Sound, posted this poetic video tribute “For Librarians” (3:03) to libraries and librarians. The poem itself was featured on a BBC Four program in 2008. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}