Safe Place Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

My books dam back reality.
They shut out the ugly.
They push back the flashes
Of unfiltered facts that flood us.

My books fence out the marauding doubts.
They keep at bay the scavenging fears.
They stand up against the public panic
That spreads like wildfire in the night.

Outside the focus is on the moment.
Incendiary comments are flung like cocktails
In the faces of those who hold opposing opinions
In an arena where everything is said and nothing is heard.

I will lock my doors and stay inside.
I will close the curtains and turn on the lights.
I will pick up a book, then another, then another.
I will read with a critical eye and an open mind.

I will work my way through great ideas,
Leavened with wisdom hard won
Through trials and travels
Inquisition and passion.

I will commune with the living and the dead
With cynics and visionaries
With poets and the playwrights
With the longwinded and the witty.

And maybe in their dusty company
I can find some small truth to cling to
When the world rushes back in
Like reality after a sweet dream.