LENDERS WEEPERS

My wife and I have gone through the travail of trying to get friends and family to return our books (so many times) that I decided to write a bookplate inscription. Here it is:

Would that I could keep them both:

The friend I love for all his faults,

The friend I call a favorite book.

Either I lend my friend my book,

And wait and wait and finally

Resign myself to the bereavement of its loss;

Or else I make a point to get it back,

And in the process of exposing his or her neglect

Alienate, to some extent, my friend.

JERRY COWLE, PACIFIC PALISADES