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Mosaic Musings...interactive poetry reviews _ ARCHIVES -> Poetry for Exhibition Prior to 2006 _ Late at the Library

Posted by: jgdittier Jan 14 05, 10:33

After 40 years of returning every book on time, last year I was 3 days late!

O demon guilt, my conscious now proclaims
Your weigh to be my burden, heavy held.
My fate has fallen into Satan's flames,
To restitution now I feel compelled.
This crime of mine occurred without design,
A happenstance I vowed I'd not repeat.
As ignomy, disgrace and shame combine
With fine to make my punishment complete.
O'er forty years of faithful fealty,
With naught a blemish brought by boastful thought...
Reduce it not! The fine in full on me!
Perhaps a victim, I, as I've been caught!
And still I must, by fine, them recompense.
"O.K., I'll pay. Three days, that's fifteen cents"!

Posted by: Psyche Jan 14 05, 10:48

FANTASTIC, RON !!!
So glad you posted this for Exhibition, it's clever, contains excellent vocabulary, rhymes beautifully and put a BIG SMILE on my face !!
Thanks for sharing,
Psyche :sun: :jester: :read: :cheer:

Posted by: jgdittier Jan 20 05, 17:42

Dear Psyche,
Keeping poetry #1 as a hobby is not any easy task as all who write hope also to entertain. Your having taken time to confirm your having read and found value in my post here is exactly what it takes for all of us to "stay the course".
Cheers, jgd

Posted by: Jox Jan 20 05, 17:51

Hi Ron,

I missed this, sorry.

Most amusing.

Last year I was seven months late in returning seven library books. The fine was about £30.00. I've given up; I always lose them. I simply buy the books now - cheaper, expecially if I can buy them second-hand.

By the way, I saw a video clip on tv tonight of the Nazis burning the books... for some reason your Satanic flame made me think of that.

Good stuff.

Cheers James.

Posted by: Cleo_Serapis Jan 20 05, 19:59

Tee hee Dear Ron,

What a pleasurable read! Thanks for posting this one. I cannot recall the last time I visited my hometown library - seems like ages!

I couldn't even say what the 'late dues' would be?

Since I became a bit of a book collector (you know, my expression for buying every new sci-fi/fantasy or horror novel that comes out and then saying, "One of these days I'll get to it!".....

I still have about 40 books in the bokcase(s) to read, !

Cheers - perhaps you've made me realize that paying the library dues is cheaper! :grinning: :oops: :upside:

~Cleo

Posted by: jgdittier Jan 21 05, 10:30

Dear Psyche,
Comments like yours fire the coals of verse!

Dear James,
I'm not aware of the current exchange rate, but at 0.05$/day, your fine here would be $73.30 US.
I was genuinely embarrassed.

Dear Cleo,
I just hope none of those books was from alibrary!

Cheers to all, jgd

Posted by: Psyche Jan 21 05, 10:48

Hi Ron, James, Cleo !!
Nice gathering place, old Plato's Academy...er, Pearls of Wisdom, oops.
Reading you guys' remarks about begging, borrowing or stealing books :speechless: ,made me wonder whether any of you have my problem... Whenever I finish reading a good book, I feel as if I'm in a mourning period, there's a sort of void in me, and I don't want to put the book back on its shelf or pass it on to somebody else, let alone give it back to the library or its rightful owner....
Maybe that explains some people's "sticky fingers", without justifying them, ha ha..... :jester:
Cleo, my nightable is loaded with books to read, it can't be moved for cleaning, I also have the bad habit of reading several books at once. I pick out one according to the mood of the moment. I also carry a book in my handbag, which probably explains why my shoulder aches horridly... I've got this phobic fantasy of being stuck somewhere without reading matter to distract my attention from whatever perils may assail me....
Well, nice chatting with you :pharoah2
See, Ron, how your poem has set all of us thinking and/or jesting.... or firing the coals of verse :bowdown:
See ya !
Psyche :wave:

Posted by: Jox Jan 21 05, 11:03

Hi Lori, Sylvia, Ron,

The $US / £ Sterling exchange rate is fast-heading for 2:1 (what are you folks doing over there? The $ is going to be in free-fall, if you're not careful and that will be no good for anyone). [You need to increase taxes, gentley reduce consumer spending, haul-back state spending and imports and just start to touch the brakes. See they won't pay me a big salary now - I've told them what to do... Though I'm not sure electing GWB was the best move, given my prescription. And remember, I can comment - it is not just a US problem. When you sneeze, we get the cold].

So, say about £38 - not much difference. I'm never ashamed by anything like that - just hacked-off at the fine. (No one was requesting the books).

I have kept a couple of people's books over time - but never intentionally. And I've lost a few, too.

I don't keep a book in my handbag - I need the space for my make-up. If I know I am going to be waiting anywhere I tend to take a paperback, a notepad and pen. Read or write - or both.

If I finish a novel which I enjoyed, I do feel a slight loss, yes. I often tend then to buy the next by that particular author, until I'm sick of them.

Cheerio, James.

Posted by: Psyche Jan 21 05, 12:13

HA HA, James !!

I have room in my hand-bag for make-up AND a book AND a notepad AND a hanky AND several unmentionables or whatever. Weighs a ton...
In my country we usually have to wait for things, so "be prepared" is my motto :jester:
I'm afraid I get passionate about books, so my loss is greater than yours :)
Yes, I "do" authors also, same as music , play them to death...

I hardly ever allow anybody to lend me books, I'm so untrustworthy.

Your advice on the US$ sounds familiar, with my Argentine experience(s). I certainly don't want the dollar to crash since it wouldn't suit anybody, but after the way my country was misguided, pressured and deceived on countless occasions by the IMF and the WB and numerous private banks in Europe and the U.S., as well as by well-known Harvard economists in key world positions, it would surely be a cause for merriment, if short-lived.

Nowadays some countries are again talking about another "Argentine miracle" and it's really mind-boggling. Has everybody gone insane? We're supposed to have a growth-rate of about 8% this year, I'd like to know who does the accounting, fiddles with the figures, tells blatant lies. We're used to being lied to by our own corrupt leaders, but why does the R.O.W. believe in all that bull??
Our streets are full of beggars and nearly 50% of people live below the poverty line, however that's calculated.

And here, same as in the U.S., the rich seem to pay less taxes, whereas the middle-class downwards are strangled.... We have the highest VAT in the world, 21% on practically everything, often duplicated in the course of complex taxation strategies.

Gee... Ron's poem has led us astray, :offtopic:
Isn't it fun to misbehave in the forums?!
Psyche :wave: