REMEMBER, a cut to our culture

Is a deep scar to our psyche

And now libraries who’ve stood for many years

Are threatened with closure:

Dinas Powys, Sully, Rhoose, Wenvoe.

Where will the old lady down the street

Borrow a book to fill in the hours?

Vale Council consider, use your powers

To preserve these jewels, part of our heritage

For we are rich not a Third World country

And when one ventures into a library

You can explore the world: from deepest Africa

To the vast whiteness of Antarctica,

Live in the minds of great detectives,

Sail the seven seas and venture through time

So closing libraries would be a crime

Eroding community spirit even further.

Would they build flats adding to traffic?

Surely the ghosts who’ve browsed these magical shelves

Would drift sadly as the builders came.

Therefore let’s continue with people power

For libraries are an oasis in this dark, cruel world

So book lovers everywhere must unite,

Ensure the flames of culture stay alight.

Guy Fletcher

Pantmawr

Cardiff