POEM A DAY – January 25 – VANESSA SHIELDS

I’ve been thinking about relationship, dear reader. I’ve been thinking about what motivates me to keep creating. I’ve been thinking about the root of my writing dreams…no matter the shape or size of these writing dreams, you are in them as readers. So as I continue to write, as I continue to choose different modes of sharing so you can read, I’d like to tell you this…in a epistolary poem on this cold, blustery, snow white day….

You Take The Page

Dear Reader,

I write for you and me. My thoughts, my body, my fingers pushing keys, forming words and sentences, paragraphs and chapters…making choices and contemplating developments. I hear the words as I write. I see the scenes on the screen in the theatre of my mind…short films revising after each viewing. This is a love rooted in solitary soma: my spiritual drink, the liquified versions of the story’s lives. You are here, reader, with me as I create, as I weep or rage or laugh or quit. I keep coming back to the page with you. This repetition of devotional together-ing is a critical part of my process. But, sometimes, I let you go, reader. Sometimes I have to. I have learned to trust in the moments when full, radical, unhinged, unfiltered me needs to express…but oh, this outrageous articulation is where our magic connects.

And then reader, you take the page. You take the words, you hear the sounds, you watch the scenes in the theatre of your mind. And we are together again, differently. This time, you generate the love pulse. You unfurl and undo your locks and boundaries and take me in. I am forever grateful for this gift. Yes, when you take the page, reader, I am at your mercy. I am your disciple, your humble servant. I am your first friend, your vile villain, your dream dust, your magic mover…I am extraordinarily yours. Let’s stay together, reader. For all I wish is for you to read…to keep taking the page.

With love and gratitude,
Poet Writer