Travels by Book

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A Book

by Emily Dickinson

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/book/

My early poetry was by A A Milne.  I can still remember much of it:  "Of all the Knights in Appledore/the wisest was Sir Thomas Tom..."

I just loved the beginning - very numinous somehow - and of course the poem is so funny, Sir Thomas Tom being much too wise to get into any fights.

And I can remember bookworming away, lost in Beau Geste in one of the many quiet corners of Nabbs.  I was - Spoiler Alert - so shocked when the hero died!  I did not know such a thing could happen.  Its not a book I could have read or enjoyed as an adult, but as a child I was completely lost in it, transported into the world of the book.  As for Bulldog Drummond in The Final Count !!  I found it terrifying.  That mysterious poison that killed you instantly if a drop of it touched you, UNLESS you had the antidote.  

I did not have the antidote.  Fortunately Bulldog Drummond did.

And I have been a great armchair climber for many years. I don't know how many times I have been up Everest, K2, the Alps, etc, the safe way, by sofa. With a cup of nice hot tea by my side.

Tuesday morning there was still no rain - not down here anyway.  There has certainly been some in the North.  Helen reported wet stuff falling from the sky on facebook on Tuesday morning.  And - hurray! - this morning we had our rain - a little in the night and steadily all morning. Which is better than a monsoon-type downpour which runs off the dry ground so quickly causing flooding.

And this morning we went to our Flower Lady for our  Bible study as usual. She was very welcoming and we talked some more about the Kingdom of God, the heavenly government that will set things right, wonderfully right, on the earth.

How I wish everyone on the earth would just accept a Bible study and find out what it actually says.  If it is God's inspired word, as its writers claim, then  clearly the proof lies within it.

There are no pictures of Appledore in Col's blog, but I did find this pretty one of Crab Apple Blossom which makes a nice heading.