Don’t like poetry? Then you haven’t heard Ed Hicks read Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson – or even a minor poet.

Larry McLeod said Ed Hicks can bring out emotions just reading Mother Goose.

So whether you like poetry or you don’t, or just  think you don’t, the Brown Bag event at noon Thursday at the Tupper Lightfoot Memorial Library will be the place to be, said Jennifer Amlong, Tupper assistant director.

“Even if you don’t understand poetry, you’ll enjoy hearing Ed read,” Amlong said. “He reads with such feeling — with such emotion — that you can’t help but be intrigued. It’s an emotional experience.”

Hicks voice can emulate the roar of a raging sea or the flutter of a butterfly’s wing.

Ed Hicks, a retired Troy University professor, is a master of words and a regular “Tupper” brown bagger.

“Ed comes whether he is a presenter or not,” Amlong said. “He enjoys hearing others speak and read as we all do. So we are encouraging those who come to bring a favorite poem for Ed to read. And it would be a real special treat for him to read an original poem written by a brown bagger or a member of Tupper’s Growing Words group.

Amlong said the Brown Bag events are open to the public and everyone is encouraged to bring a sack lunch and enjoy the program and the fellowship of friends and neighbors.

The Tupper Lightfoot Memorial Library has received the Alabama Public Library Standards of Achievement Award at the Bronze Level.

The award is attained by exceptional public libraries in Alabama, in recognition of superior planning and levels of excellence.

Trawick said the Tupper Lightfoot Memorial Library is dedicated to carrying on foundation that was established by former directors and library board members.

The Brown Bag lunches, the Growing Words group, Friends of the Library and the library’s programs for children and teens are ways that the library is continuing to maintain the level of excellence for which the library is known.