Blue Heron Review’s Fall 2023 edition themed ‘Heart Source and Haven’ includes my poem “The Library on Market Street.” It is the true story of many children who came to the Aberdeen Timberland Library when I served as Youth Services Librarian there. My co-workers and I worked very hard to be sure that all children and families felt welcome. In a community ravaged by unemployment and other negative effects of downturns in the forestry and fishing industries, many children lived in unstable situations. We always wanted the library to be a bright and cheerful place with lots of fun programs and also independent ways to pass the time. I hope we engendered a love of reading and made each and every young patron feel honored and valued. Here is my poem:
The Library on Market Street
Child with no address finds herself
in an adventure with the dog
she always wanted. It is afternoon
and she is locked out again.
But this place is always open
when it says it will be.
She found the library when she
visited with her fourth grade class.
Was allowed to check out a book
to take home. A book about
Egypt. But they moved from the car
to the shelter and she couldn’t find
Egypt to return. The librarian said
she would save books behind the desk
so the girl could read on weekends
or after school. Like the one called
How to Draw Horses she could use
to create her own mustang and a mare.
Then the librarian gathered the class
for a story, a silly story about magic
animals and when the children joined
in the refrain the girl laughed
for the first time in this town. She
has never been to Disneyland or Six Flags
or Yellowstone, but she comes
to the public library all summer. Scratch
paper and pencils wait on a shelf
and a new paperback about a girl
and a puppy. No one else has read it
yet. The pages smell like clean sheets.
They welcome her within them.