I Opened a Book

Part V - Readers and Writers

Søren Harbel: Lille, 2013

I opened a book and in I strode.
Now nobody can find me.
I’ve left my chair, my house, my road,
My town and my world behind me.

I’m wearing the cloak, I’ve slipped on the ring,
I’ve swallowed the magic potion.
I’ve fought with a dragon, dined with a king
And dived in a bottomless ocean.

I opened a book and made some friends.
I shared their tears and laughter
And followed their road with its bumps and bends
To the happily ever after.

I finished my book and out I came.
The cloak can no longer hide me.
My chair and my house are just the same,
But I have a book inside me.

The poem above is by Julia Donaldsen. It speaks to readers, as much as it speaks to photographers looking at books of photographs. The more you see, the more you read, the more you know, and the more you care, and the better you are for it. The poem is very appropriately called “I Opened a Book”

Here is my selection of Readers and Writers part V.

Søren Harbel: San Sebastian, 2018

Søren Harbel: Madrid, 2022

Søren Harbel: London, 2016

Søren Harbel: Paris, 2009

Søren Harbel: Lille, 2012

Søren Harbel: Venice, 2022

Søren Harbel: Rome 2017

Søren Harbel: Bologna, 2019

Søren Harbel: Montepulciano, 2015

Søren Harbel: London, 2014

I has been suggested that I have moved around a bit in my life. That may be so. I subscribe to Mark Twain’s thinking. As he aptly wrote:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

If you want to find the other four, they are here, on my substack page:

http://harbel.substack.com

Until next time……