why print books he said
who needs books these days
everything's on the web
well i wouldn't know i said
i still enjoy turning pages
in a chair by the fire
still window-shop mainstreet
still relish a big screen matinee
buttered popcorn jujubes and milk duds
still sit and think about how
all last century carriages went horseless
and horses thank god are not extinct
still long for real letters in the post
the effort of someone's penmanship
the dear and sincerely yours
just bought a case of new and improved
better than edison lighbulbs
mega kilowatt compact florescent
and still i'd rather light candles
strike sparks with someone i love
in near dark face-to-face
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Lowell Jaeger teaches creative writing at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell, Montana. He is author of six collections of poems: War On War (Utah State University Press, 1988), Hope Against Hope (Utah State University Press 1990), Suddenly Out of a Long Sleep (Arctos Press, 2009), WE (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2010), How Quickly What's Passing Goes Past (Grayson Books, 2013) and Driving the Back Road Home (Shabda Press, 2015). He is founding editor of Many Voices Press and recently edited New Poets of the American West, an anthology of poets from western states. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, winner of the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize, and recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council. Most recently, Lowell was awarded the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award for his work in promoting civil civic discourse.
"why print books" was published in Driving the Back Road Home.