"What's in a name?"

The name comes from my love for second-hand books, and the idea that they are just waiting to be rescued, and loved by someone else. I have more books from charity shops than I know what to do with, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Second-hand book of the moment: 'Staying Alive-Real Poems for Unreal Times', edited by Neil Astley, published by Bloodaxe Books.

I found this at the aforementioned Way with Words festival, in a box, under a table. I let out an incredulous gasp as I saw it, because I'd been sighing over a glossy copy in Waterstone's only the week before and yet here it was, only slightly thumbed, waiting to be 'rescued'! It's an amazing anthology, with poems for every time of life-sections include 'Man and beast', 'Growing up', and 'In and out of love'. It's the kind of book that I like to have on my bed-side table, so that I can dip in and out of it whenever I don't feel like getting into a novel.

I've picked out my current favourite poem, although this does change almost daily. It's by Denise Levertov.

Variation on a Theme by Rilke
(The Book of Hours, Book 1, Poem 1, Stanza 1)

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me-a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honour and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.