English teaching confessional

Abstract

While browsing the poetry section of the Harbor Book Co, a bookshop on the island of Bainbridge in Puget Sound, USA, I happened upon Simon Armitage’s Walking Home, an account of how the poet sustained his two week-long trek along the Pennine Way in northern England by doing a poetry reading every evening. I had wanted to read this book for some time, but owing to the distractions provided by so many other books, I had not yet managed to get my hands on a copy. So when I came across it in Bainbridge while on a day trip from Seattle, I started reading it straightaway. The bookshop was immersed in silence, and I thought I was the only customer until I became aware of a woman’s soft voice in the adjoining children’s section, which happened to be at the very back of the shop. Looking up from my book, I saw a woman seated on a tiny chair with a young girl at her feet listening to her read. As I peered through the doorway, they seemed unaware of my voyeuristic presence. A sense of déjà vu overwhelmed me as I remembered witnessing a similar scene whilst taking the London Underground to Heathrow Airport a few years back: I was once again mesmerised by the simple act of an adult reading to a child.