We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

29.7.24

Stamps of the World [Revision]

 

Why does Portugal love Snoopy? Why 

do such a  lot of other countries love cats? 

Silly questions!  I love Snoopy and cats.


Mt Fuji makes sense for Japan.

Are flowers / birds / fungi national? 

What about lobsters? Bats?


I’m more used to monarchs (British)

notables from history (Australian)

images of public events.


In the middle of my childhood

when I started to be serious 

(before I turned teenage frivolous)


Grandpa  decided I’d collect stamps 

like him; spent hours sitting with me

to explain their stories, their geography.


I didn’t care about small squares of paper.

I wanted books. It was books, not stamps,

brought messages, showed me the world.


Who uses stamps now? We email, we text.

But books continue to bring me mountains, 

flowers, animals, cartoon characters …




(Earlier version) 

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