Why I write

Why must you write?

The voices, Ann

The voices I cannot stop them

they come to me when I sleep

when I wake

when I sup

when I walk down the hall

The sweet longings of a maiden

the surging ambitions of a courtier

the foul designs of a murderer

the wretched pleas of his victims

Only when I put their words their voices to parchment

are they cast loose

freed

Only then is my mind quieted

at peace

I would go mad if I could not write down the voices

Are you possessed?

Maybe I am

That came from the movie Anonymous and although it isn't quite that bad for me the voices are there, the scenes playing out behind my closed eyelids as I try to sleep. So I tell their stories and for a while there is peace. Until the new ones want their turn. 

Yet, I also write for the same reason I read-to offer the escape of another world, of other possibilities, of dreams I didn't know existed.