Under The Influence

The following poem was written in a writing class while I attended USF for my BA in English.  I submitted it under the pen-name of R.W. Weaver to a contest as part of that year's Suncoast Writer's Conference.  It won Honorable Mention for the Estelle J. Zbar Poetry Award.  I hope you enjoy it.

Under the Influence

For some it’s a concert, all sweaty and horny.

For me it’s a movie, all pungent and bottled.

To affect, to offend; to be affected, offended.

All in the confines of a darkened room.

It begins at the booth and I’m shut outside,

Begging for entrance, voices scratching through glass.

Or, maybe before, when still in the car,

Examining posters of Imagic Rivals outside.

Inside it’s midnight, even at noon.

I swoon to the scents of sugar and popcorn--

The warm and buttery cotton-candy of film--

The jingle of ice, the slurp-sip of the fountain soda,

The sticky-crunch to my step I try to ignore.

House-lights cool and conversations hush, hush.

And I cannot breathe the anticipated air.

The rumble of speakers, oh, how they tease, always precede

The Imagic screen for which I had come.

The sights, the sounds, intoxicatingly honed.

I shiver from it, and pulsate inside,

A thrill beyond body, my mind high on idea.

I scribble on napkins, inside of the lobby,

Where characters crowd, hyper-excited,

And I’m caught in the stream of what we’ve just seen.

When I have sobered, I read what I wrote,

Find the writing has bled, the characters blurred.

Hung-over and numb, I’m convinced of the worst:

Nothing I write will evoke what I felt.

© RMKS 1999

Thank you for indulging... (me).

The Drabbler's Mission

In this section, I will post samples of my in-progress and completed works.  I've titled it in honor of a theme among fanfiction where writers post chapters that are only 100 words long.  These 100 word chapters are called Drabbles.  As samples, I will probably do drabbles for chapters as I am writing or perhaps just before publishing.  Longer samples will also likely be available after a story has been published.  

The subtitle of "...feeding the beast..." is not in reference to the reader, but to me, the writer.  As I am typically eager to get a story out for public consumption, I am hoping that these drabbles will keep me from releasing the final completed story before it is ready.  Also, any feedback that readers may make on these drabbles will likely heighten my enthusiasm to finish them before succumbing to the "ooh, sparkly" syndrome of jumping full in to the newest idea.

I haven't ironed out the specific designations for all of the samplings or how they will be organized, but I will revise this post when and if I do update them.  

However they are done, I hope they will entertain and intrigue you.  I hope these nibbles will incite you to take a chomping on the full stories in their entirety.  To that end, I will post links to sites where the published stories can be purchased once they are available for purchase.

Regardless of whether you purchase or not, I encourage comments on the drabbles and other samples.  Just bear in mind that they are merely tiny bite-size nuggets broken off from a larger whole, and thus, will not be complete stories or even thoughts in and of themselves.

So, with that, open up and take a bite. 

Thank you for indulging... (me).