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Rick Barooah's avatar

I liked the poem!!

Places are not hunted with ghosts, but memories and depressions of lost times, of lost moments, of lost life.

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Martin Hughes's avatar

Thanks, Rick! Indeed, there are so many moments and memories waiting to appear. Sometimes waiting for the right time, and sometimes impatient to spring out. I find it fascinating.

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Anagha Smrithi's avatar

Thanks for the mention Martin! And some lovely words in here; there's something entirely magical about a haunted library.

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Martin Hughes's avatar

Thanks, Anagha. Libraries have long been a favourite place of mine. But to be left alone in one at night sounds unnerving. I'd keep the lights on for sure!

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Penny Harrison's avatar

“This shadow chorus in the twilight

Fades again with day. But lives on in

Books. Between the printed letters seen.”

Love this. So full of imagery.

And the idea of the shadows moving into all the ‘abodes’ they go to - fuelling minds and ideas 👌🏼

In a weird sort of way your library of a shadow chorus brought to mind the bfg’s library of dreams in glass jars - being blown into minds to be wonderful dreams.

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Martin Hughes's avatar

"We is in Dream Country."

It's decades since I read The BFG, what a great reminder, thanks!

"Fuelling minds and ideas" - Absolutely. There's a kind of spooky vibe, but I wanted a vague idea that none of it was deliberately spooky or malicious, nor solely negative in nature. But there is a kind of desperation for those unread voices to find an audience of some kind.

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Penny Harrison's avatar

It’s decades since I read it too - but I have watched both versions of the film relatively recently. The earlier one still feels more magical to me.

There’s defo a spooky vibe - or something unnerving at least.

Your idea about rye ‘desperation of voices’ is really thought provoking. I’m suddenly thinking about the suffocation of characters each time a book is closed….that they’re desperate to be read again so that they can breathe….

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