Reading Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

I think completing reading
A few pages or a book or two
Is a great job, an accomplishment. But is it?

It is no way different from seeing TV
Or movies: only the eyes are at work,
No consumption of physical energy.

I dont know whether the brain has to exert
To read, or is it like the wind
That blows over the still lake?

'Yogash chitta vritti nirodh' of Patanjali
Is the definition of yoga I like best.
But then what does vritti mean?

One translation is 'ripples'.
When one reads, are there ripples
In the brain? any expenditure of energy?

Or is it as smooth as breathing,
Almost automatic, almost regular
But an activity without which life cannot go on.

Or, the material I read, create emotions in me
And thus set in motion
A process that settles into thought or action?

Francis Bacon the wise man covered
Reading, talking and writing together
And began with 'Reading maketh a full man'.

'Full' in what sense? only I think
That brick by brick, my reading constructs
The full multi-storied structure of my self.