The books are whispering – Simic / Heidi Mulder Art

Sun Room by Heidi Mulder

In the library, by Charles Simic

There’s a book called
‘A Dictionary of Angels’.
No one has opened it in fifty years,
I know, because when I did,
The covers creaked, the pages
Crumbled. There I discovered

That angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep them away.

Now the sun is shining
Through the tall windows.
The library is a quiet place.
Angels and gods huddled
In dark unopened books.
The great secret lies
On some shelf Miss Jones
Passes every day on her rounds.

She’s very tall, so she keeps
Her head tipped as if listening.
The books are whispering.
I hear nothing, but she does.

Charles Simic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He is known for his work as a poet, editor, translator, and essayist. He was selected to be the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. In his poems, Simic draws on his experiences of growing up in wartorn Eastern Europe and of travelling to France and the United States in his teenage years — his poems explore the themes of displacement and estrangement. His poetry is often described as ‘surreal’ or ‘nightmarish’.

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Artist: Heidi Mulder