A life in boxes and crates: 30 years.
\nThirty years of research in archives
\nand no thought of giving it away.
\nLibraries say they\u2019ll take good care
\nand grant access any time, within
\nreason, 9 to 4, five days a week.
\nWhat about midnight on Christmas Eve,
\nwhen I need to read the diary notes
\nof Rose Wilder Lane or Elizabeth Bishop,
\nEdna St. Vincent Millay or Mrs. Lindbergh?
\nMost people relocate furniture, photos, appliances,
\nand clothes. Here is scholarly detritus enough to
\nfill a garage, a walk-in closet, and then some.
\nDividing myself between four abodes \u2013 an apartment,
\ntwo houses, and a condo \u2013 none of them mine, I grow
\nunsettled and wistful to visit my things.
\nMy books, especially, I miss with great longing,
\nalthough a well-stocked Kindle helps. But some
\nwill never be scanned, digitalized, online at my
\ncommand. These are the books I swear to protect.
\nAnd my own diaries and manuscripts \u2013 they will not
\nbe carted off to the bowels of an institution. For as
\nlong as I can, I will keep them with me, and safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A life in boxes and crates: 30 years. Thirty years of research in archives and no thought of giving it away. Libraries say they\u2019ll take good care and grant access any time, within reason, 9 to 4, five days a week. What about midnight on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12637,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12632\/revisions\/12637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}