A Poet’s Tale – BSC Poetry Contest – April 30

Wrap up National Poetry Month in April by participating in BSC’s Poetry Contest!

• When: Tuesday, April 30, 7 p.m.
• Where: Basin Auditorium, National Energy Center of Excellence
• How: Register at the door; open to anyone who wishes to participate in the contest or watch
• Cost: Free!
• More than $500 worth of prizes!

Contest Rules

• Poem must be original
• Poem must be read out loud
• Max length: 3 minutes

Need more info? Contact: kevin.cavanagh@bismarckstate.edu

Cover of Poesia, magazine edited by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944), No. 1-2, February-March 1909

 

 

It’s World Penguin Day!

25 April
Happy World Penguin Day! 

The penguin is a flightless marine bird,  family Spheniscidae, order Sphenisciformes, found in the southern hemisphere. A very social bird, penguins live together and usually breed in large colonies. Read more about them here.  

Gentoo penguin {Pygoscelis papua} nesting colony with chicks and adult at nest, Antarctica

Library Hours, April 18 – 23

Easter Holiday Hours, April 18-23

• Thursday, April 18 – 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
• Friday, April 19 – Closed
• Saturday, April 20 – Closed
• Sunday, April 21 – Closed
• Monday, April 22 – 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Tuesday, April 23

LIBRARY OPEN, 7:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Take advantage of this time and opportunity to work on your final projects & papers!   

• On April 23, BSC daytime classes are cancelled & BSC offices will be closed from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., so faculty & staff can take part in a campus planning session
• Evening classes (beginning at 4:30 p.m. or later) will be held

If Librarians Were Honest

If Librarians Were Honest by Joseph Mills

“…a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work…” – Benjamin Franklin

If librarians were honest,
they wouldn’t smile, or act
welcoming. They would say,
You need to be careful. Here
be monsters. They would say,
These rooms house heathens
and heretics, murderers and
maniacs, the deluded, desperate,
and dissolute. They would say,
These books contain knowledge
of death, desire, and decay,
betrayal, blood, and more blood;
each is a Pandora’s box, so why
would you want to open one.
They would post danger
signs warning that contact
might result in mood swings,
severe changes in vision,
and mind-altering effects.

If librarians were honest
they would admit the stacks
can be more seductive and
shocking than porn. After all,
once you’ve seen a few
breasts, vaginas, and penises,
more is simply more,
a comforting banality,
but the shelves of a library
contain sensational novelties,
a scandalous, permissive mingling
of Malcolm X, Marx, Melville,
Merwin, Millay, Milton, Morrison,
and anyone can check them out,
taking them home or to some corner
where they can be debauched
and impregnated with ideas.

If librarians were honest,
they would say, No one
spends time here without being
changed. Maybe you should
go home. While you still can.

Source: 5 Poems About Libraries

Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things

Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things by Naomi Shihab Nye

She is holding the book close to her body,
carrying it home on the cracked sidewalk,
down the tangled hill.
If a dog runs at her again, she will use the book as a shield.

She looked hard among the long lines
of books to find this one.
When they start talking about money,
when the day contains such long and hot places,
she will go inside.
An orange bed is waiting.
Story without corners.
She will have two families.
They will eat at different hours.

She is carrying a book past the fire station
and the five and dime.

What this town has not given her
the book will provide; a sheep,
a wilderness of new solutions.
The book has already lived through its troubles.
The book has a calm cover, a straight spine.

When the step returns to itself,
as the best place for sitting,
and the old men up and down the street
are latching their clippers,

she will not be alone.
She will have a book to open
and open and open.
Her life starts here.

Source: 5 Poems About Libraries

Picture Yourself Celebrating Libraries

PICTURE YOURSELF CELEBRATING LIBRARIES!

Snap a few pix at our selfie station & share them with friends

Check out a print book, DVD, or CD during NLW & qualify for a prize drawing!

National Library Week 2019

My First Memory (Of Librarians) by Nikki Giovanni

“The Librarian” by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1566)

This is my first memory:
A big room with heavy wooden tables that sat on a creaky wood floor
A line of green shades—bankers’ lights—down the center
Heavy oak chairs that were too low or maybe I was simply too short
For me to sit in and read
So my first book was always big

In the foyer up four steps a semi-circle desk presided
To the left side the card catalogue
On the right newspapers draped over what looked like a quilt rack
Magazines face out from the wall

The welcoming smile of my librarian
The anticipation in my heart
All those books — another world — just waiting
At my fingertips.

Source: 5 poems about libraries

Celebrate National Library Week!

National Library Week — April 7 -13, 2019

CELEBRATE WITH US!

• Stop by & have some fun at our selfie station
• Check out a print book, DVD, or CD during NLW to qualify for a prize drawing

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April Is National Poetry Month – “In the Library” by Charles Simic

In the Library by Charles Simic

There’s a book called
A Dictionary of Angels.
No one had opened it in fifty years,
I know, because when I did,
The covers creaked, the pages
Crumbled. There I discovered

The angels were once as plentiful
As species of flies.
The sky at dusk
Used to be thick with them.
You had to wave both arms
Just to keep them away.

Now the sun is shining
Through the tall windows.
The library is a quiet place.
Angels and gods huddled
In dark unopened books.
The great secret lies
On some shelf Miss Jones
Passes every day on her rounds.

She’s very tall, so she keeps
Her head tipped as if listening.
The books are whispering.
I hear nothing, but she does.

Source: Transactions with Beauty – “5 Poems about Libraries”