[Nfb-krafters-korner] OT: For all of you Digital NLS Player fans...

[Dixie]

This was forwarded to me and I thought you might enjoy it!

Dixie

~ @-> ~ <-@ ~

 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I listened, weak and weary,

To many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly I heard a tapping,

As of something gently snapping¬snapping from my player’s core.

“Tis the tape”, I sadly muttered, as a quiet curse I swore,

“Just the tape¬and nothing more.”

 

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,

As I in a fit of temper threw that tape upon the floor,

So many times my player failed me, with frustration it had ailed me,

Many new ones they had mailed me, saying “this one’s good for sure”,

But each time I’d press that button, it seemed that it was all for nothing,

“Would I ever find that something lets me listen?”, I implored,

“To my books forevermore?”

 

Eagerly I wished for morrow¬for perhaps, surcease of sorrow

Would come with the next tape I would borrow¬Without hiss or pop or roar,

Without stop, or twist, or tangle, maybe it would play me more,

Dare I hope that I could someday hear a book straight through once more?

One day sit, relax, and listen, find my reading joy restored

By a book forevermore?

 

I woke that morning, after dreaming, in my room the sunlight streaming

Tried again to play that tape I’d thrown upon the floor.

Then I heard a quiet tapping, as of someone gently rapping,

‘Twas the postal carrier tapping, tapping on my dwelling’s door

“Friend”, he said, with smile of greeting, “this is such a merry meeting,

For I bring the gift of reading¬reading that is now restored

By digital books forevermore!”

 

I took the package that he gave me¬could this package truly save me

>From the anguished cries I made when my books would play nevermore?
I opened up the package, beaming; inside a black machine was gleaming,

And a small white cartridge, seeming much too small one book to hold,

But I put that cartridge in it, and within a single minute,

I knew that this machine would win it¬win my heart forevermore.

And cassette tapes? Nevermore!

 

Wendy Eisenberg, Librarian