Poetry belongs in the library. Just like magic. A poem is a potential well of sounds. Sounds become words that come alive as scenarios and characters. Shel Silverstein, wizard of words, captures the wonder of this experience in his poem Magic. Rendered, in this recording, by the children of three community libraries in Goa, the poem gives us a glimpse of the magic that can happen when voices come together in the library.
Magic
Read this to yourself.
Read it silently.
Don’t move your lips.
Don’t make a sound?
Listen to yourself.
Listen without hearing anything.
What a wonderfully weird thing, huh?
NOW MAKE THIS PART LOUD!
SCREAM IT IN YOUR MIND!
DROWN EVERYTHING OUT.
Now, hear a whisper.
A tiny whisper.
Now, read this next line in your best crotchety old man voice:
“Hello there sonny, does this town have a post office?”
Awesome! Who was that?
Whose voice was that?
Certainly not yours.
How do you do that?
How!?
Must be magic!!
Photo courtesy: http://www.biography.com/people/shel-silverstein-9483912