This poem was written at the time I began working for a doctoral degree and was spending many hours in libraries. I suppose it is a reflection of my state of mind owing to this. Most students and general readers, even those who are “lovers of the book,” probably need a break occasionally from too much book and library exposure. If the poem has any universality it may be in that respect. I was also attempting to add to the neatly piled stack, so I probably saw myself as one of those “alive in the air crying for space.”

There are rooms
Whose papers make me shudder,
Whose shelves are dancing
Dots of black enclosed;
These rooms, filled up,
Neatly piled, draw me in;
I'll turn my back on them,
On beckoning silent lines
Enclosed in covers, loudly,
On quiet rooms filled with voices.
Recent and ancient sages
Saying their piece;
Dead, alive perhaps, they scowl.
I listen and see thoughts,
Monotonous tones,
Roars to truth, to beauty,
Follow me down to dungeons
Of ideas, a great alphabet box,
Theories, laughing, accusing;
What fools occupy this stage,
These rooms full.
Yet they come on,
Falling over their syntax,
Crushed by words, dying,
All dead in these full rooms;
Those alive in the air crying for space.
 
Frank's extensive career in teaching and librarianship began when he taught English in the U.S. From 1961 to 1963, as part of a Columbia University program called “Teachers for East Africa,” he taught English and American Literature in East Africa. There he met his wife, Dorothy. They returned to the U.S. where he simultaneously taught and finished two Masters’ degrees, in Education and in Librarianship. In 1968 they returned to England where Frank taught Library Studies, and adopted Hodge, a cat who later traveled around the world with them. In 1972, Frank was “seconded” for two years to teach at Makerere University in Uganda, East Africa, but left reluctantly after one year when the tyranny of Idi Amin became intolerable. From there it was back to England, then Australia and finally  to America in 1979, to Buffalo where Frank earned his doctorate. Later they moved to Colorado, where he was Professor of Library Studies at the University of Northern Colorado until retiring in 1997. Frank published James A. Michener: A Checklist of his Work with a Selected Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press) in 1995. He has written on bookmarks, specifically on medieval bookmarks, his special area of interest. A poet by avocation, he writes eclectically but traditionally. Frank and Dorothy live in Colorado with two very senior citizens of the feline persuasion. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it