HOW EASY IT IS TO FLY ON PAPER WINGS « April Halprin Wayland

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HOW EASY IT IS TO FLY ON PAPER WINGS

by April Halprin Wayland

I am reading Charlotte’s Web for the ten thousandth time.

I have read this book over and over,
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so the words are worn and pressed—

I can scarcely make them out.
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It’s as if I were talking on a cell phone

while walking under a bridge,
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when static devours words whole—

or so I imagine.
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Never mind, though—

I have read Charlotte’s Web ten thousand times.
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I can say every word of this book to myself,

sitting on the grass, leaning against the great elm tree.
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I have opened the book again because

The story behind the poem:

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As I drive around Southern California, I have been listening to the audiobook, The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, written when she was just 22 years old. It’s thrilling that a woman who couldn’t see or hear created and lived such a rich life. (When I looked her up in Wikipedia to read about her later years, I was floored at how much she gave back to the world. Amazing.)
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At one point she talks about the first books she read as a child, running her fingers over the raised letters: “I read them over and over, until the words were so worn and pressed I could scarcely make them out.”

I was struck by the image of wearing down words. Later she exclaims, “How easy it is to fly on paper wings!”

Read /listen to this part of her book here.

Imagine living without vision and hearing. What would that be like?