By: Tanvi Maharaja, PT DPT at Signature Healthcare
WHERE THE BOOKS LIVE:
I visit this neighborhood
Where the books live
All under one roof
Portals into another world
Charmed spells
Magical Mystical
The books live here.
Some afternoons
The kids gather
Around the storyteller
In the front yard
By the quaint fountain
He, in his timber voice
Tells them stories, as they
Every so often
Go absolutely silent
Jaws open, eyes wide
Then burst out laughing
Giggling and squealing
Minds wandering
To kingdoms far away
It makes them dream
Of things that are
And things that may be
And even those
That grown-ups dismiss
As strange and unlikely
It makes them think
Of how the world once was
In part beautiful, in part cruel
Parts unfair and parts hurtful
And when they go home
They will look around
And when they go out
Into the street tomorrow
They will note
That the world has changed some
But not a whole lot
It still is, parts unfair and parts hurtful
They will come back
To this house
Where the books live
With that thirst of wanting to know more
About why it is so
The burning desire
To unravel the mystery
Of this world
Parts unfair and parts hurtful
Lies somewhere in there
In this house
Where the books live
And it makes them wish
To be More.
More strong, more confident
More adventurous, more vocal
More kind, and true to themselves
To be more and than some
Untamed and Original
To be on a journey
So wonderful and intriguing
The destination hardly matters.
The books tell them stories
The books they plant seeds
Of courage and curiosity
Of questioning and critiquing
They open doors
To the Mind, to the Soul
To avenues and to possibilities
And more children gather
Each afternoon
To hear these stories
And they find their old friends
And they make new ones
To giggle with, to dream with
And very often
They find themselves
In this wondrous house
Where the books live
And they will keep coming back
With more questions for each answer
Finding stories of lost worlds,
Of Unfinished quests and Noble causes
Of friendships and treachery
Of science and fantasy
With their friends
Who they once giggled and squealed with
And the kids they grow and bloom
As they step out of the wonderland
of each book
They will go on
And change the world
To mirror
all the goodness
That the children once found
Within this house
Where all the books live
-Tanvi
Community Voices for Health 
Simply awsome
The old Memorial Library in North Haven, CT sat directly across the street from the house I grew up in. It served as a lifesaving “refuge” and a “portal” to anywhere far away from my dad’s drinking. Thank you for this wonderful poem and its reminders of all the great treasures I found there and how they helped me to get to all the good places I have been able to go in my life!