A wistful chime greets the visitor,
as it always has.
Books line the shelves of this humble establishment,
forgotten in this modern age.
She remembers it, though.
In fact, she may have even purchased something
once,
or twice.
Her fingers brush against those ancient spines,
the copper bell still echoing.
No need to ask of her desires,
for she seeks naught but vellichor.
Vellichor,
that sorrowful bliss at the sight of so many
sad, old things.
A Sparrow once said,
'It's happy,
for deep people,'
and she couldn't agree more.
Briefly,
she touches another time,
and pulls a volume off of its perch.
The pages dance,
and dust flies up into the air.
She wonders who turned these pages,
who loved this book so greatly that
the text is faded and grey.
She wonders if she, too,
could love it just as much.
But alas,
there are not enough hours,
not enough days,
not enough years to read them all,
to take each and every one home
and put them on her shelf.
Bittersweet success is hers,
and the book is carefully placed
back where it belongs.
The bell rings once more.
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125,029 Literary Works • 672,781 Reviews
Hey there!
First of all this is a very nicely written poem and it reflects exactly how a lot of reading enthusiasts feel. Vellichor is the perfect title for this poem, Herbgirl was right about that.
"turned this pages" is wrong 'this' should be written as 'that'.
'It's happy,
for deep people,' If you could elaborate on this verse it would be quite appreciated, its not wrong I simply don't understand why it's written.
Other than that it is flawless, I really enjoyed reading it because it has a small sense of adventure. All the books we haven't read, all the history we don't know yet. It gives me anxiety thinking of all the knowledge we don't know simply because people are too lazy to read.
Oh well, thanks for the good read and I hope you keep writing poems as beautiful as this.
Good luck!
The first is a typo. It should be "these" XP
The second is a Doctor Who reference.
Hello! herbgirl here for a review!
So, I'd like to start off by warning you that i have a pretty bad cold right now but didn't want to miss review day, so if any of my advice seems a little off it's probably because my judgement is clouded by snot. Ok. I really liked this poem! I've read some of your stuff before, if I remember correctly, and I enjoyed that very much, too. You do a wonderful job of imagery, I think, even if it's just by using one word, like "vellichor". I felt I could also relate to your character, in a strange way.
I have a few suggestions. First, the title. I understand that "Used" is meant to represent that the it's a used bookstore, but feel like there is much more to this poem. I suggest titling it "Vellichor", since that is mainly what the poem focuses on, and seems to sum it up so well. Plus, since i doubt many people know what this is, it could really pull readers in.
Next, in the first stanza, I think you should combine the sixth and seventh lines. I don't like the pause in between the words "something" and "once", I think it's unnecessary and interrupts the flow of the poem.
In the third stanza you mention "A Sparrow". Now, since you capitalized Sparrow I don't think you should have the "a" in front of it. It's hard to explain why. Since you capitalize the word Sparrow it's like you are using it as a name, and if you put an "a" in front of it it's like saying "a herbgirl", if that makes sense. So I would advise you to either remove the word altogether or change it to "The".
Also in that stanza, you say "It's happy, for deep people." This line really bothers me. It doesn't really fit the rest of the poem, because it's a very simple sentence, and the way it says "for deep people" almost seems to mock the character, deep people don't call themselves deep people. I advise you to change this line to something that might mean the same thing just described in a more elegant manner.
In the fifth stanza you say, "she wonders who turned this pages," and I think you can see what's wrong there, just a simple little grammar mistake. Change "this" to "these" and you'll be good.
Anyways, good job! Sorry if any of this seemed harsh. I really liked your poem, it was beautiful, and I hope to see more like this from you!
herbgirl
I definitely agree about the title; I really wasn't happy with the old one tbh.
The whole "Sparrow" thing is a Doctor Who reference. I'll probably try to rework that part.
Thank you so much for the review! It was very helpful.
This is a very sweet poem. It's quite sad but also lovely.
I don't really know what else to say, only that I had to look up the word vellichor haha- and this poem describes it beautifully!
Well done