Inside Poetry for National Poetry Day 2

Here’s another poem from Inside Time, the issue of August 2014, kindly chosen for us by Rachel Billington. We’re putting up a poem a week in the month leading up to National Poetry Day on October 2nd.

Books

From J Fowler – HMP Brixton

Books, books, books All encompassing books Learning books Escaping books Fantasy books Good books Crap books Books for the head Books for the heart Books to punish Books to relieve Books that are old Books that are new Big books Small books Books to recommend Books to disregard Holy books Praised books Banned books Music books Story books Cooking books Arty books Popup books Sticker books Log books Register books Reference books Naughty books Guide books Language books Joke books Instruction books Lost books Found books Burned books Saved books Digital books Parchment books History books Books, books, books Never too many Always reading Always needing Never leaving The desire to read To learn To escape To own To keep To share To care Shouldn’t be withheld Shouldn’t be bribed Should be at hand! Should be fanned The fire inside Got to shout out For our books Gotta fight the man Take a stand for our right To learn Our right to a book Good or bad Long or short Fun or serious Large or small Cos if we don’t A Hitleresque will burn our books And we’ll have none left And what a negative world that’d be