Inner Doors

I am a visual storyteller by trade. I've created imagery in one form or another most of my life as a photographer, graphic designer, and motion graphics designer. I discovered the enjoyment of creating imagery through words quite by accident.

I was in my mid thirties, and while I enjoyed reading, I had never given any thought to writing until one day when I found myself sitting in front of a blank card. My niece Karen Elizabeth had invited me to her high school graduation and I wished to express my hopes for her future as well as my admiration for what she had already accomplished. Somehow, "congrats" didn't quite cover it. After a few stumbles and false starts, the poem 'Karen Elizabeth' was written. Luckily for everyone involved, the 'roses are red, violets are blue' version went by the wayside rather early on.

To my complete surprise, I then found myself with pen in hand every spare moment over the next few years. What I lacked in talent and skill, I made up for with determination. A few classes and a couple years of making myself get up at poetry slams, and I discovered that I had written what amounted to a resume of my being.

As this collection developed, I came to believe that I would someday meet the woman for whom I had imagined this resume was being written. To that end I had lovingly placed each piece into a red leather binder as it was finished. Years later I did meet her, and although fate did not choose a happily ever after for us, the writing remained. Such is life. So in your travels if you happen to meet a woman with a red leather binder of my poems and stories, please say hello for me and give her my love.

Robert Reed Paul Thomas