Jim Thorpe -- A Great Town for the Arts

This past Saturday, several writers joined me for a reading of short fiction pieces at Sellers Books and Fine Art in downtown Jim Thorpe. I was happily surprised at the turnout. The room was full and our host, Randall Sellers, put together a really nice event. In fact, we had such a good time we may do it again in a few months. Be sure to come by and join us in December if you are in town. We’ll announce the date here and in the Carbon County media.

Perhaps the best outcome of the event is that, due to the store’s location, we can now tell our families that we performed on Broadway.

I read this great poem by Susan Mitchell as part of the event:

The Dead

At night the dead come down to the river to drink.
They unburden themselves of their fears,
their worries for us. They take out the old photographs.
They pat the lines in our hands and tell our futures,
which are cracked and yellow.
Some dead find their way to our houses.
They go up to the attics.
They read the letters they sent us, insatiable
for signs of their love.
They tell each other stories.
They make so much noise
they wake us
as they did when we were children and they stayed up
drinking all night in the kitchen.

by Susan Mitchell