'I Went for a Walk in a Book' - A Poem for Readers

Words are magical. They can transport you, inspire you, crush you, revive you. They communicate love and hate. And they communicate the experience of love and hate. You can live another life in a book, you can experience an entire range of emotions in a poem.

This is a fun poem about experiencing a book.

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I went for a walk in a book,
over fields of description,
and forests of exposition.

Narration lulled my sense of unease,
metaphor and analogy played and did tease.

I took a wrong turn at alliteration,
lost my way at rhyme and had some hesitation.

Two devices I did see.
They distracted while dialogue took a bite at me.

I flashed back in time,
and sprung forward again.

I was dazzled by sensations,
tickled by character revelations,
and thrown by the thrills of plot innovations.

To walk through a book is no easy task,
the point is not the finish.

The point, is to bask.

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There are two basic sets of devices that you can think about when writing: narrative devices and rhetorical devices. Narrative devices are used for the overall plot structure; a flashback for instance. They help make a good story. Rhetorical devices are used to make good sentences; rhyming for instance. Thinking about it like this helps me to keep my options in mind, without letting them run completely chaotic.

Everyone that knows me knows about my love affair with books. This poem was fun and light to write. It felt like playing an enjoyable pastime. I'm sure it's not my last poem about the experience of reading.

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