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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree)

@exlibrisnc.bsky.social
198 followers 260 following 525 posts

Posts about poetry, history, antiquarian books, spirituality, and wordplay. Louisiana native, longtime North Carolina resident.

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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 6h
OCTOBER Books litter the bed, leaves the lawn. It lightly rains. Fall has come: unpatterned, in the shedding leaves. The maples ripen. Apples come home crisp in bags. This pear tastes good. It rains lightly on the random leaf patterns. www.poemhunter.com/poem/october... #Poetry #Poems #Schuyler
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I love to go out in late September among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries to eat blackberries for breakfast, the stalks very prickly, a penalty they earn for knowing the black art of blackberry-making... poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-mo... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn #September #Kinnell
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Sonnet 73," by William Shakespeare That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang... poets.org/poem/time-ye... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn #Love #Cropsey
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Kenneth C. Steven, KNOWLEDGE Sometimes everything is not wrong & the autumn morning blues into all that was ever meant the trees coppered by the water, the geese ragged in the low sky. There is no need to fear for time stands still & mirrored in the loch’s clear sheen x.com/arealmofwond... #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Eavan Boland, NOCTURNE After a friend has gone I like the feel of it: The house at night. Everyone asleep. The way it draws in like atmosphere or evening. One-o-clock. A floral tea pot and a raisin scone. A tray waits to be taken down... www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3... #Poetry #Poems #Cats
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Primo Levi, "After R. M. Rilke" Lord, it’s time; the wine is already fermenting. The time has come to have a home, Or to remain for a long time without one. The time has come not to be alone, Or else we will stay alone for a long time... syntaxfree.org/poem-after-r... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Shel Silverstein, "Pancake Poem" Who wants a pancake, Sweet and piping hot? Good little Grace looks up and says, "I'll take the one on top." Who else wants a pancake, Fresh off the griddle? Terrible Teresa smiles and says, "I'll take the one in the middle." #Pancake #Poetry #Poems #PancakeDay
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
In our souls everything moves guided by a mysterious hand. We know nothing of our own souls that are ununderstandable and say nothing. The deepest words of the wise man teach us the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows or the sound of the water when it is flowing. #Poetry #Poems #Machado
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"Whim Wood," by Katharine Towers into the coppery halls of beech and intricate oak to be close to the trees as they whisper together let fall their leaves, and we die for the winter #Poetry #Poems #Autumn www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kath...
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Go ahead, Lord, break our harp. We have thousands upon thousands of harps. We’ve fallen into Love’s arms. We’re torn by Love’s claws. We’re carried by Love’s music. Who cares if we lose a harp or flute? poets.org/poem/go-ahea... #Poetry #Poems #Heartbreak #Love #Heart #Rumi
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"September" Then the flowers became very wild because it was early September and they had nothing to lose they tossed their colors every which way over the garden wall splattering the lawn shoving their wild orange red rain-disheveled faces into my window without shame #Poetry #Poems #GracePaley
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Reposted by Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree)
Sandy McIntosh @sandymcintosh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” -Vincent Willem van Gogh #PoetryLovers #poems #poetry #PoetryCommunity
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Like trains of cars on tracks of plush I hear the level bee: A jar across the flowers goes, Their velvet masonry Withstands until the sweet assault Their chivalry consumes, While he, victorious, tilts away To vanquish other blooms... www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/172857... #Poetry #Poems #Bees
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Clumsy at first, fitting together the years we have been apart, and the ways. But as the night passed and the day came, the first fine morning of April, it came clear: the world that has tried us and showed us its joy... poets.org/poem/kentuck... #Poetry #Poems #Friends #WendellBerry
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It is a willow when summer is over, a willow by the river from which no leaf has fallen nor bitten by the sun turned orange or crimson. The leaves cling and grow paler, swing and grow paler over the swirling waters of the river as if loath to let go... poets.org/poem/willow-... #Poetry #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“I confess there are several parts of this Constitution which I don't at present approve, but I'm not sure I shall never approve them. Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects."
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Working Together," by David Whyte We shape our self to fit this world and by the world are shaped again. The visible and the invisible working together in common cause, to produce the miraculous... onbeing.org/poetry/worki... #Poetry #Poems #Flight
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift & vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, & unlock more than a maple: a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon & tomorrow morning & tomorrow afternoon. You can’t take it with you.” (Annie Dillard) #Poetry #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
MUSEUM Here are plates with no appetite. And wedding rings, but the requited love has been gone now for some three hundred years. Here’s a fan–where is the maiden’s blush? Here are swords–where is the ire? Nor will the lute sound at the twilight hour.. muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/articl... #Poetry #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Ted Kooser, "Post Office" The wall of identical boxes into which our Aunt Sticky sorted the daily mail was at the far end of her dining room, and from the private side looked like a fancy wallpaper upon which peonies pushed through a white wooden trellis... voetica.com/poem/12902 #Poetry #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
James Crews, ALLOWED TO BE ORDINARY When I stop comparing and allow myself to be ordinary—folding tea towels and T-shirts into neat squares, rinsing out the sticky jar that once held honey—I taste a piece of eternity... jamescrews.substack.com/p/allowed-to... #Poetry #Poems #Ordinary #Comparison
jamescrews.substack.com
Allowed To Be Ordinary
Accepting the Assignment
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Elizabeth Bishop, "North Haven" I can make out the rigging of a schooner a mile off; I can count the new cones on the spruce. It is so still the pale bay wears a milky skin; the sky no clouds except for one long, carded horse¹s tail... www.newyorker.com/magazine/197... #Poetry #Poems #Grief
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
THE JOURNEY Above the mountains the geese turn into the light again painting their black silhouettes on an open sky. Sometimes everything has to be enscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you... thedewdrop.org/2018/10/10/t... #Poetry #Poems #Loss #Grief
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Wendell Berry, "To Know the Dark" To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. #Poetry #Poems #Darkness #Light
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Frank O'Hara, "My Heart" I'm not going to cry all the time nor shall I laugh all the time, I don't prefer one "strain" to another. I'd have the immediacy of a bad movie, not just a sleeper, but also the big, overproduced first-run kind... poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-mo... #Poetry #Poems #Heart
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Always remember. #9/11
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Love Comes Quietly," by Robert Creeley Love comes quietly, finally, drops about me, on me, in the old ways. What did I know thinking myself able to go alone all the way. #Poetry #Poems #Love #Alone
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Wendell Berry, OUR REAL WORK It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. #Poetry #Poems #Life
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
#Books #Reading
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes... -- e. e. cummings (1950) writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3F... #Poetry #Poems #ChocunaLandscape
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
E. E. Cummings, "Love is the every only God" love is the every only god who spoke this earth so glad and big even a thing all small and sad man,may his mighty briefness dig for love beginning means return seas who could sing so deep and strong... ripe-tomato.org/2014/07/12/l... #Poetry #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Wendell Berry, "The Loved Ones" #Poetry #Poems #Afterlife #Dreams
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
In the evening there were flocks of nighthawks passing southward over the valley. The tall sunflowers stood, burning on their stalks to cold seed, by the still river. And high up the birds rose into sight against the darkening clouds... www.instagram.com/p/DcyYCBjxArQ/ #Poetry #Poems #Wendell
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
(Excerpt from Canto 81, by Ezra Pound.) #Poetry #Poems #Love #Eternity
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Eavan Boland, THIS GARDEN Awake late at night what I see is faces, faces, their radiance. And realize I will never see them again. Then I come to this place, to this garden: A stretch of grass, fog-wet at dawn reaching past hutch wire, sweet pea poems.com/poem/the-gar... #Poetry #Poems #Gardens
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Seamus Heaney, POSTSCRIPT And some time make the time to drive out west Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore In September or October, when the wind And the light are working off each other So that the ocean on one side is wild With foam and glitter... #Poetry #Poems poems.com/poem/postscr...
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
After all things occurred to me, the void occurred to me. There is a limit to the pleasure I had in form— I am not like you in this, I have no release in another body, I have no need of shelter outside myself— www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/end-of... #Poetry #Poems #Summer #Creation #Gluck
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation & despair, Show an affirming flame #Poetry #Poems
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds... onbeing.org/poetry/the-p... #Poetry #Poems #WendellBerry
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Seamus Heaney, "Blackberry-Picking" Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot... www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50981/... #Poetry #Poems #Summer #Berries #August
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Reposted by Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree)
Christine Corcos @lpcprof.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
"I would encourage you to re-read your job description. I call your attention to the section labelled 'Related duties as assigned.'"
A gray and white tabby (white vest, white paws) sits regally on top of a pile of books gazing into the camera.
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Watch the moment on "The Porter Wagoner Show" in 1973 when Dolly Parton begins to assert control over her own writing, her own performing, and her career as an artist. youtu.be/BpeCa8rud3Q?... #Dolly
youtu.be
Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner Run That By Me One More Time 1973 Extended
YouTube video by feneceos
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Late August-- This is the plum season, the nights blue and distended, the moon hazed, this is the season of peaches with their lush lobed bulbs that glow in the dusk, apples that drop & rot sweetly, their brown skins veined as glands davidkanigan.com/2012/08/28/l... #Poetry #Poems #Summer #August
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Mary Oliver, "The Pond" August of another summer, and once again I am drinking the sun and the lilies again are spread across the water. I know now what they want is to touch each other. I have not been here for many years... onbeing.org/poetry/the-p... #Poetry #Poems #Summer #August #Singing
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Reposted by Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree)
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
What a lede, @lindsayzoladz.bsky.social. 💔 @nytimes.com #Dolly www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/a...
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Emily Dickinson, "If I can stop one Heart from breaking" If I can stop one Heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one Life the Aching, Or cool one Pain, Or help one fainting Robin Unto his Nest again, I shall not live in vain. #Poetry #Poems #Life #Kindness #Dolly
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene Oh I'm begging you please don't take my man Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene Please don't take him even though you can Your beauty is beyond compare With flaming locks of auburn hair With ivory skin & eyes of emerald green... genius.com/artists #Poetry #Poems #Dolly
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
"In Late August," by Peter Campion In a culvert by the airport under crumbling slag wine colored water seeps to this pool the two does drink from: each sipping as the other keeps look out. The skyline is a blur of barcode and microchip... #Poetry #Poems #August www.poemhunter.com/peter-campion/
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
There is a moment after you move your eye away when you forget where you are because you’ve been living, it seems, somewhere else, in the silence of the night sky. You’ve stopped being here in the world. You’re in a different place, a place where human life has no meaning... voetica.com/poem/8212
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Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree) @exlibrisnc.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Garrison Keillor, "Sweet Corn" "...O that fresh sweet corn that the Lord sent down So we know how heaven will be, No grief, no tears, just the young golden ears Plenty for you and for me..." #Poetry #Poems #Summer #Corn www.prairiehome.org/story/2005/0...
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