The Epigraph

There are many ways to choose the next book you're going to read. Some people reread cherished books; others take recommendations from friends, family, The New York Times, or Oprah; people pick books based on authors, titles, covers, but I make my selection based on the epigraph.

Now I can't be sure if the epigraph is upon what the book is based, or if it's what the book becomes in the end. Either way, it is how the author feels about what they've written and how they seek to partner it up with something - a quote, a verse, a refrain - that already exists.

I'm a quote hunter, so I thrive on interrelation. I like hearing something and being able to connect it to something else I've heard. This may, in the end, be a useless skill or past-time, but it creates symmetry in my world and symmetry, like balance, is best.

Right now, my epigraph would be this:

Five Roses in the Morning
MARCH 16, 2003

On TV the showbiz of war,
so I turn it off
wishing I could turn it off,
and glance at the five white roses
in front of the mirror on the mantel,
looking like ten.
That they were purchased out of love
and are not bloody red
won't change a goddammned thing ---
goddamned things, it seems, multiplying
everyday. Last night
the roses numbered six, but she chose
to wear one in her hair
and she was more beautiful
because she believed she was.
It changed the night, a little.
For us, I mean.

-Stephen Dunn