I picked this book up in May 2023, likely as part of a bundle of chapbooks such as the Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library proffers for a dollar (fifty cents on Saturday). It looks like the other two Hallmark Treasures books I bought that day–The Magic of Children and What Is a Friend are hidden somewhere in the stacks of Nogglestead. They’ll be pleasant bits to read and to pad the annual total as this one was.
I picked it up on Thursday night to “read” whilst watching the silent Packers game. Its poems and excerpts definitely fit into those long gaps between plays, as most are four to sixteen lines long laid over photographs. The excerpts include Whitman and Wordsworth, and some of the full poems are then-contemporary greeting card poets (I presume–I don’t recognize the names).
And, let’s be honest: This really is just an extended greeting card. Inside the front cover, we have a greeting card sentiment (“With best wishes for today and every day”), and this particular volume was given on a birthday in 1967. In the past, they gave little bits poetry as quasi-gifts. In the past, people could read.
So, not quite chapbook length. A pleasant read. A pleasant reminder of Wordsworth (more than Whitman). And a whole book as far as my annual reading total is concerned (currently: 82 books–a prolonged construction project bisecting my lower level and rendering me incapable of focusing on weightier books has been a boon to my annual read list).
