The Spirit of Collecting Things

Value Beyond Worth

Photo Credit to Author

I have the first edition copy of Laura Gilpin’s The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe. It’s in good condition, softcover though, and no signature to speak of. This book won the Walt Whitman Poetry Prize in 1976.

This book is nowhere to be found online. No one is selling a copy so far as I can tell through a basic online search. I had heard rumors of people buying this book for between six and twelve hundred dollars.

Now, I am the practical type regarding books. I will read almost anything besides formula fiction and anything that promises too much. I read my copy of Hocus-Pocus and was surprised by the clarity of the language, the subtle figurative edge around each poem. Think Jenny Xie if she abided by the rules of grammar and wrote about the mundane.

It’s the words I am after. I read it and kept it on my shelf for a couple of years. I moved to my own apartment and started working more.

I thought I needed some extra cash, so I started selling some things. I sold a stationary bike, a fat Playstation 2 console with controllers and two games; and I sold an air fryer that I received for Christmas. Then I started looking into what else I could sell, and I remembered this little poetry book by Laura Gilpin.