National Library Week

We're celebrating National Library Week April 15 at both the Main Library and the Evergreen Branch. At the Main Library we have a line-up of local celebrities to serve you cake, the Wild Snohomians to entertain you in the coffee shop from 3-4 p.m. with their unique rockabilly sound, and librarians to introduce you to what's new at your library throughout the day. The Evergreen Branch will have cookies and information of library services and programs all day.

Then at 7 p.m. Joe Raiola, editor of MAD Magazine, will speak (perform?) on The Joy of Censorship. Raiola is stopping in Everett as part of his first-ever West Coast Tour, and he's been speaking to large audiences in public libraries from Eugene north. Joe takes an illuminating, satiric and at times disturbing look at America's most hotly debated First Amendment issues, the history of MAD, and censorship in the United States. The program is free and open to the public. It's also unrated--and uncensored.

A Poem for National Poetry Month

Here's a poem by Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets, in honor of National Poetry Month:

Some Questions You Might Ask
Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?
Who has it, and who doesn't?
I keep looking around me.
The face of the moose is as sad
as the face of Jesus.
The swan opens her white wings slowly.
In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.
One question leads to another.
Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg?
Like the eye of a hummingbird?
Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?
Why should I have it, and not the anteater
who loves her children?
Why should I have it, and not the camel?
Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?
What about the blue iris?
What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?
What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?
What about the grass?