Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.
‘This weekend we’re at the We Have Ways Festival with our pop-up bookshop. This has to be one of the friendliest festivals of the UK summer – full of knowledgeable authors and speakers and a great crowd of folk – all eager to know stuff. As my retired history teacher brother always says – “if you want to know the future, look to the past”.
‘Of History and Hope’ by Miller Williams – the American poet, who read the following poem at the 1997 inauguration of President Bill Clinton – a poem of hope and compassionate values.
We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.
The great and all the anonymous dead are there.
We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.
The rich taste of it is on our tongues.
But where are we going to be, and why, and who?
The disenfranchised dead want to know.
We mean to be the people we meant to be,
to keep on going where we meant to go.
But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how
except in the minds of those who will call it Now?
The children. The children. And how does our garden grow?
With waving hands-oh, rarely in a row –
and flowering faces. And brambles, that we can no longer allow.
Who were many people coming together
cannot become one people falling apart.
Who dreamed for every child an even chance
cannot let luck alone turn doorknobs or not.
Whose law was never so much of the hand as the head
cannot let chaos make its way to the heart.
Who have seen learning struggle from teacher to child
cannot let ignorance spread itself like rot.
We know what we have done and what we have said,
and how we have grown, degree by slow degree,
believing ourselves toward all we have tried to become –
just and compassionate, equal, able, and free.
All this in the hands of children, eyes already set
on a land we never can visit – it isn’t there yet –
but looking through their eyes, we can see
what our long gift to them may come to be.
If we can truly remember, they will not forget.
We’re swimming in books: utterings of “this looks intriguing” to eyes wide in amazement at joyous children’s books, it truly is a spectacle in September! Below we’ve picked out some of the best this week, quirky or thoughtful, these are books to savour.
As always, if there’s anything you need, just pop by or reply to this email!
From Sophie
Feeling curious? Click on the book covers below to explore the book.
The full newsletter with links to books – including this week’s Signed Editions – can be found HERE
