A Chuckle of LongLugged Books

Colleen Thibaudeau. My granddaughters are combing out their long hair. “As if in code …”

It’s a poem about chucking out stuff. Jettisoning. There is a keeper — a line to keep in memory:

chuckle of longlugged books, carvings, embroidery,

It is a line that brings to mind a Japanese word I encountered in Ella Frances Sanders’s book Lost in Translation

cover ella frances sanders - lost in translation

The word is Tsundoku. It’s a noun from the Japanese meaning “leaving a book unread after buying it, typically pile up together with other unread books.”

illustration - Tsundoku

And this book of poems by Colleen Thibaudau sat in a pile unread. But no longer so. I read and relished the image of a “chuckle of longlugged books”. And now I have sent both image and word back into the world. The book will find other hands and other piles in which to rest.

Lost in Translation is to be gifted to a friend fond of words and their textures.

half title page - colleen Thibaudeau (signed) my granddaughters are coming out their long hair

And so for day 2205
26.12.2012

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