The Lighthouse

Photo by Jason E. Hodges

 

It seems

Someone

Something

Is watching us

Each step we take

Watching our every movement

Within this tower of

Sea guiding light

With its painted black stripes

Spiraling upwards

Into the crystal blue sky

The higher we climb

With each step we take

The more we feel their presence

Is the lighthouse guardian

Still walking these grounds?

Or

Is it the mariners?

The ones

Who never made it back

From the sea

From the dark water and waves

Tossing their boat about

Like a twig

In the eye of a hurricane

Are they now here beside us?

Yes

Someone

Something

Is watching us

I feel their eyes from the other side

Peer through the void between our two worlds

The gaze of the ones not living

Can be chilling indeed

Once you realize their eyes have falling upon you

For

Only your primal senses can feel them

You have no way of knowing

If they’re looking with lust

With love

With hate

With curiosity

Because we’re all just trespassers

In their eternal haunts

Until the day we cross over 

And watch what once was ours

Discovered by the next to walk

In the footsteps we walk today

Katie In Love : Chloe Thurlow

 

I recently bought and read “Katie In Love” by Chloe Thurlow. It’s truly mind-blowing how beautifully written this book is. Thurlow takes you on a journey through the eyes of the protagonist, Katie Boyd. You see the world she is walking through so perfectly at times you feel you are walking the same streets, hearing the same sounds, feeling the same things. Her senses become your senses. Her thoughts become your thoughts. Thurlow creates a perfect refection of Boyd’s life as a writer navigating through today’s world.     

This book is labeled erotica but it so much more than that. Yes, it has sex scenes but not to the frequency that one would think reading the label erotica. This is one of the many reasons I’m not fond of labels. The sex in this book is timed perfectly. It’s passionate, strong, and dripping with desire but not overdone. It’s honest in the sense that Katie Boyd knows what she wants and is not afraid to acknowledge her needs. In this life most are feeding their conscience lies to make them feel better about not going after what they really want. I admire Thurlow for creating a character like Boyd, and for being just as fearless in her on life as a writer.   

What is the mark of a true artist?

“Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” is a song so hauntingly real when heard it stirs every human emotion locked within the listener. Yet, it’s a song that has no words. It was also written and performed by a man who could not see. A man blinded by his stepmother who threw lye in his eyes when he was seven years old. “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” is comprised of nothing more than his sorrowful moans and the sounds of his slide guitar. But when played it cries out and holds you with an undeniable truth. This is the mark of a true artist. Someone who pulls you in with their expression and moves you so deeply you never want their art to end. You wish there was one more verse in their song or one more chapter in their book. Chloe Thurlow is one of these artists.

Chloe Thurlow, has been compared to Anais Nin. I’ve read a great deal of Nin’s work and I would have to agree. I don’t say this lightly. To say Anais Nin was a huge influence on me as a writer would be an understatement. When I read “Katie In Love”, I looked at it through a microscope. Thurlow’s work is as close to Nin’s as one could get. Like Nin, Thurlow’s words are insightful and moving. “Katie In Love” is compelling and spot on with the life of a writer. Her descriptions are poetic and creative. When reading her work it feels like she has blown some unseen magic into the pages of her book making the storyline alive and real. As a writer, I know this is not magic, this is hard work. This is sleepless nights worrying over what will be written next. This is rough drafts, rewrites, backspacing, and rewriting again. From the first few pages to the last you will see Thurlow poured everything into this book and shied away from nothing.

Chloe Thurlow, along with Elizabeth Woodham, are two of my favorite writers today. Both are out of London and write erotic romance, but their writing goes far beyond this label. They have studied their craft and it shows in their quality of work. Look them up and you will see for yourself.

If you’re an adult and can handle mature subject matter, can handle writing not hidden by curtains, “Katie In Love” is the book for you.   

    

 Link to Katie In Love on Amazon

 

Words To Be Heard

All YouTube clips are poems written and read by Jason E. Hodges. The photos, and artwork within these clips are also by him.