Notebooks

So many notebooks, and what do they hold?
Beginnings of stories that never unfold.
First lines of verses remaining untold.

Lists and reminders of things incomplete.
Measurements taken and now obsolete.
Random addresses I no long need.

Doodles that conjure a chat on the phone.
Arithmetic workings for reasons unknown.
Yet I can't let them go. Like a dog with a bone

I keep them in drawers for some far rainy day
When I think that their contents will come into play.
Some moment when life doesn't get in the way.

So many notebooks with little to say.

© Celia Warren 2022

Paper breeds in our house, and notebooks especially. This collection is only the tip of the iceberg and includes two that are unused. The little one with the budgies on the cover is a Winfield notebook from Woolworths, dating from the 1960s. The second oldest , the flower-power design that has green pages, dates from the 1970s. All the others are more modern and all partly used. They inspired today's poem, so they were worth keeping. Meanwhile, I have a pile of back-of-envelope ditties or beginnings of poems that I want to type up in case they lead anywhere. Something to do in my spare time .... to do one day!