Trees, Books and Libraries

Let’s talk trees, books and libraries…

And perhaps universities.

Shi Huang Di burnt books.

A hundred or so years later,

Caesar might have torched

the library at Alexandria.

Few centuries down the line,

Nalanda — the revered

university of yore — was

flamed, burnt to ashes.

Some decades ago, where

flows the Huang He, peasants

ransacked homes, burnt books

to appease the Red God.

Tyrants desecrated,

destroyed. But resilience

prevailed. Books still stayed,

and libraries and trees.

Murmuring with leafy breeze, now,

rest pages in the Nordic freeze —

to be read a hundred years later.

Words here turn to icicles in winter.

A thousand trees were planted

to carry stories that rang with

fame in their times. A hundred

names swishing will fruition find.

What of voices that remain

unheard? Will they whisper

in the spruced woods histories

lost without the pages of a book?

*

*A thousand trees were planted in a forest outside Oslo to home ‘The Future Library’ project which will be revealed after a hundred year. Each year, a famous author is invited to contribute one book.