By Susy Shearer. Image credit: Rosie Hopkins

Running from the kindergarten to the library in my house
To the rows and shelves of books that were my childhood’s
Mates and companions, and as the pages turned…
With each new friend, I there met
I climbed the rocky slopes and raised my eyes in wonder
Spread my wings out wide, I soared in the crests of the currents
Swimming with seals and dolphins,, I discovered.
Those “words” offered me a world filled with wonders

Like shimmering sands and oceans-wide
Sunsets, crescent moons…
Forests filled with green and
Skies that are violent crimson reds then rest…
With shades of soothing hues of blues and greys
Words have always carried me
To faraway peoples, places, and lands
Running like clouds in my mind
They soothed and fed my dreams, my soul, my life

I have travelled the earth and the skies
Have walked and died in frozen lands
And sank my feet and toes in dunes of volcanic sand
I have seen every race and met all mankind
I first discovered “A” could not rest until I got to “Z”
The blurry lines took shape with my eyes, I ate the page
I swallowed the words I read my thirst finally quenched
By the words that filled the books and or the page

I was present when our galaxy was born
When stars and planets took shape and were
Finally defined by their substance and place in line
I watched dinosaurs rule the earth and the skies and then
In the millenniums turn to petrified stone and lime
I was there at the birth of humankind
I became the predator and the frightened beast.
I climbed down from the trees and
I was the first to rise up on two feet

With each new word found and read
Each new life discovered with each new friendship made
I started revolutions and died a thousand times
Born and lived a million days and lives
Never once having to leave the sanctuary of
My family, my home, all there was…
In the life of this inquisitive and timid child

Triumphant I raised my flag high and
Defeated I bled my veins dry and
I found countless lives to live and
Reasons for which to die
I fell in love; I killed, I lived, I died
Discovered poetry and rhyme
I was there with Johann Gutenberg when
The words were set down in print for that very first time

Stood by Marie Curie when she received
Her first and then later her second Nobel prize
And then by her side watching her of radiation sickness die
Lay dying as Scott wrote down his last words goodbye
I was the scientist, the poet, the soldier
The prophet from faraway lands
I was the girl first hiding in an attic and
Then in a concentration camp by her side I too of typhoid lay dying

Stood by Armstrong and Aldrin, as they took that one small step
And with Collins in Columbia from above watched them in tranquillity’s dusty seas
Land, work, rest and play
I have watched millions of famines and war die
It was then I learned the history of man, the geography of the land
I learned about the power of the asking.
Who, why, when, what if and how?

In the pages that I read, I learned…
My first passions and desires, my beliefs and dislikes
I learned to live and grow with each new page I turned
With each new word brought to life
By the words, commas, dots and gaps…
That be it in colour or black and white
Filled my soul with the ambrosia I needed in my life

It was then and only then that I discovered
Just how horrible and cruel we can be and
Sometimes very often are… when vicious
Bitter words are chosen to be said; in anger, fear, or spite
Taking and learning from past histories and lives
Hoping that we would learn to listen and remember
All the lives that have passed us by
The limits we can surpass and challenges we can overcome
When all the words we say, come out just right
And are spoken, typed, written…
Shouted out aloud or in timid whispers softly said
Leaving us with no doubt
What is said and felt by an open, honest, true and questioning heart

Written words and the power they evoked
Freed and strengthen my soul and my heart,
They gave conviction and strength to my mind
To my bones and to all that I was and am
Words are the keeper of my fears
Keepers of my dreams my hopes and my loves
Nothing is stronger than the words we say when we like and love someone
Words are the threads woven in the tapestry of this my and…
Those in your life, they embody who we are
And how we live day to day and how one day or night we will die.