Poem to Peckham Library

Peckham Library is an ideal place for me to find the stimulation I seek, it's a perfect sanctuary to nurture creative thought processes.

Poem to Peckham Library

Comfortable, Refurbished, Cocoon,

Surrounded by clear plate glass, like enormous screens featuring urban landscapes,

The clear blue sky of today is giving way to a rose pink light that streams in through the metal rafters high up in the modern design of the roof.  

The library is on the fourth floor and the view from the Ladies’ toilet window is expansive. North facing it spans from the city to way-out West beyond the London Eye, taking the Shard as a central feature.

Reading Jackie Kay poems I sit on a seat in the teenage corner as the sunlight dwindles altering the light in the cavernous space.   I am relaxed.

 I occasionally look up from my book to observe my fellow librarians (best word I can think of for users of the library) or libritarians, (no such word) as the move around or occupy the single seat computer desks one behind the other in a row stretching back into the building along-side the window.  All seemed engrossed in their individual research pursuits, and the silence is only broken by the occasional bleep of buzz of a mobile phone, calling for attention.

There are no teenagers here in the corner.

I glance at the titles, Drama Queens, Angel Blood, Angel Fire, Blood Ties.......  Return to reading ‘Other Lovers’.

I can return to reading here in Peckham Library amongst the strong black building supports that stretch at different angles, the strange bulbous bamboo observatories floating above head height (What are they?) and the general quirkiness of the modern architecture.  ‘Going to See King Lear’.  

16th October