Vellichor

definition from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig
n. the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time—filled with thousands of old books you’ll never have time to read, each of which is itself locked in its own era, bound and dated and papered over like an old room the author abandoned years ago, a hidden annex littered with thoughts left just as they were on the day they were captured.

 

 

a choir of volumes
musty and strange
paper turning
from vellum
to starch

each writer tells
a story
fixed by time
to a location
arriving
on a train of ink
and hardware
to this sturdy
wooden shelf
already in receipt
of other
long-standing payments

leather
or board bound
sewn in
dull colors etched
with gold
or silver

prices handwritten
in pencil
on the fly leaf
an abomination
deserve at least
a library stamp

flies buzzing
in circular mote currents
dust emanating
from corner
counters

stacks of nothing
you will ever know
words go unread
holy hymnals
out of order
songs
a tune of yesteryear
peerless effort
inundated

touching them
is sacred duty
reading
a long-lost opportunity
turning pages
in a dimly lit room
a novitiate

Copyright © 2014 Sharon Elliott.All Rights Reserved.