"The Words"

There’s this glorious and astounding magic that happens when I put pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard...

I go to this alternate realm of consciousness. 

It’s where I meet characters who speak to me, who take me to interesting places, and who introduce me to compelling situations. 

I’m not certain where any of this comes from because none of it was there when I sat down, when I was convinced I didn’t have any words in me. 

But still, it's all there. 

So even when the thought of a blank page makes me feel a little queasy, I force myself into that chair anyway... 

...and it's after a minute or two of laying down those once elusive words that I have to wonder what all the fuss was about. 

The words come...

...they always do.

Copyright © 2017 by Jim Vines

A HALLOWEEN POEM...

THE STEPS

The thin silvery blade

thrust brutally into me,

piercing flesh and sinew,

and I mounted the stone steps

with a great and heavy despair,

heaving, clawing,

depositing a warm, crimson trail in my wake…

Above me, my world,

my sanctuary;

beneath me, his looming, hideous form,

that sniggering, taunting laugh,

that grim, ghastly voice intoning:

“Dead before you reach the top,

dead before you reach the top,

dead before you reach the top.”

Presently I became enveloped by a pervasive, all-consuming

void,

and it weakened me;

and my eyes faltered;

and, as the steps took me, a vague, distorted image:

my left hand, its feeble digits

against cold, damp stone…

This—this—was my end;

this night,

this place,

and his laugh—it tore through me yet again

as the void gently, inexorably,

stole all that I was,

all I ever was,

all I ever would be.

(Poetry and photography © 2017 by Jim Vines)

Psst. Like a good Hollywood story?

Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen by Jim Vines