The Book by Amy Cotter

I've been told it can bring knowledge

this big, hardcover, bounded book

that lays on the coffee table.

Filled with stories from the past

that many still debate on

if they are true or if they’re fake.

It can give a person tools

to live a good and purposeful life;

for it tells all who read it

that everyone was put here for a reason.

This book has many chapters

depending on what edition you have.

What is within is not a secret

all are welcome to flip through the pages.

The title is unique with

two, short words;

but it is really an acronym

or at least that is what I have been told.

The Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

gathers a lot of dust in my home.

But, occasionally, I will flip through it

to remind me of the reasons for being here.

___________________________________________________

Poem of the Day: The Secret

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

Two girls discover   

the secret of life   

in a sudden line of   

poetry.

I who don’t know the   

secret wrote   

the line. They   

told me

(through a third person)   

they had found it

but not what it was   

not even

what line it was. No doubt   

by now, more than a week   

later, they have forgotten   

the secret,

the line, the name of   

the poem. I love them   

for finding what   

I can’t find,

and for loving me   

for the line I wrote,   

and for forgetting it   

so that

a thousand times, till death   

finds them, they may   

discover it again, in other   

lines

in other   

happenings. And for   

wanting to know it,   

for

assuming there is   

such a secret, yes,   

for that   

most of all.