Memory is the Happiness of Being Alone

with the familiar heft
of the tome,
the unique cover,
anticipation of what’s inside.

It’s the imprint
of fingers on paper
and the gentle flick
of a page.

Print marks magically
conjure meaning,
images, sounds and emotions
in the happy quietude of alone.

It’s transportation
to another place or time,
into the mind of someone
you will never touch,

but you can love and respect,
despise, accept or reject
without feeling guilty,
even if you forget.

And when the book is finished?

It’s the joy of the shelf,
the shop or the library,
the borrowing and lending,
sharing knowledge and delight.

Kim M. Russell, 9th October 2025

Image by Kateryna Hliznitsova on Unsplash

It’s Thursday and time for Open Link Night at the dVerse Poets Pub, when we link up any one poem of our choice or write to an optional prompt provided by our host; this week it’s Lisa, who tells us that the week of 5th – 11th October 2025 is Banned Books Week.

Lisa has provided a list of the most commonly challenged books in the United States, which in my mind is more than worrying, including Mark Twain, Judy Blume and Alice Walker! I’m so glad we’re not seeing in the UK what is happening in the USA, which is both scary and insane.

Our challenge has three options. I chose one of the quotes from challenged books to inspire my poem. I rather like this one: “Memory is the happiness of being alone.” ― Lois Lowry, Anastasia Krupnick.

36 thoughts on “Memory is the Happiness of Being Alone”

    1. Thank you, Lisa. I can’t imagine books being banned in the UK, but Orwell wrote about, in 1984, not the direct banning of books but the suppression of free thought and dissent, as well as the pervasive control and manipulation of information by the Party. Winston Smith, and others engaged in reading and learning despite the dangers.

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      1. You are welcome, Kim. Happy you are sharing your knowledge of banning and suppression of free thought in the UK. Orwell was always pushing the limits iirc. An important writer in so many ways.

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  3. Kim,

    As a reader, I relate to the emotions in your poem. As a lifelong educator, I wish every person could know the joy of reading.

    “Print marks magicallyconjure meaning,images, sounds and emotionsin the happy quietude of alone.”

    This stanza speaks to me of the magic of reading.

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  4. I wonder will banned books apply to audiobook form..
    I have ventured into listening to audiobooks which for me is quite a charming pastime

    Much♡love

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  7. Being a tactile person I love the feel and smell of books and printed manner. To me a book is the friend that will go everywhere with you. Your poem evoked some lovely memories of libraries and those huge tomes we would look at in wonder. Beautiful Kim 🥰

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  13. I always enjoyed finishing reading a book on a plane and leaving it for someone else to find, with a note to say that this book for sharing, not for keeping.Your poem reminded me about that. Nice write 👏

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  15. The good news (sort of) is that about half the books on the ALA list linked are favorites FOR ADULTS that have been banned FROM CLASSROOM USE FOR CHILDREN. That is, they’re still available in bookstores and libraries, but not recommended for (most) children. (My adoptive sister, who already knew about sexual abuse, recommended a novel about that topic to me. My natural sister, at the same age, thought that novel was disgusting.) Then about the other half are new books whose writers hoped to get attention by deliberately writing offensive content someone would want to ban.

    I’ve read some horrible things about censorship of online chatter, comedy acts, newspaper reports, etc., in the UK these days too. It’s the same thing. A free society must tolerate free speech even if it makes somebody angry, reduces somebody’s corporate profit, etc.

    I’ve been censored, blacklisted, etc., for whistleblowing about harm done by profitable products, including violent reprisals. You may notice how the ALA highlight objections to books about how babies are made and don’t even acknowledge objections to books, or other public discourse, about the harm done by corporate products, especially those of Bayer, Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer. What a pity. I think that category of banned books are far more interesting than too-much-information about sex.

    Then there’s covert censorship by dumbing down the content available in libraries, as when a library where I used to work had an extensive, popular collection of good books written in French and was then told to discard all of them–people who lacked access to university libraries weren’t supposed to go beyond tourist level French. I find that much more disturbing than the stale old debate about which grade needs to be taught how many details about puberty.

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  16. What a particular kind of happiness you have put into words here, Kim. Beautiful. I especially love the analogy and the delicate sounds here:

    “It’s the imprint
    of fingers on paper
    and the gentle flick
    of a page.”

    I love that books mean you’re never alone. That intimacy of being in someone else’s world, and that each writer took the time to be generous enough to share it.

    🙂

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