Movie Theater Magic, a Poem by Ruth Roth

Movie Theater Magic

By Ruth Roth

My first movie theater experience

Was The Sound of Music;

Wonderful, beautiful sensory overload;

Scenery so magnificent,

So breath-taking  ~  I will myself there.

Actors appear larger than life.

Facial expressions alive, captivating,

Eliciting feelings and emotions:

My heart pulses to each scene’s tempo,

My breathing imitates feelings –

I gasp …  forget to breathe,

I release sighs of contentment.

Sounds of glorious music crescendo

As anticipation, excitement or fear

Play out on the screen.

Exquisite harmonies resonate in the Abbey;

With closed eyes, it’s heavenly.

I am mesmerized as the plot thickens;

Soldiers invade the idyllic scene,

Father and children cleverly hide.

My anger, my desperate hope

Temporarily threaten enjoyment.

The ending charges in abruptly,

I sigh with relief and pleasure;

For a moment in time

I too lived this story.

I reluctantly struggle back to reality.  

Ruth A. Roth grew up in northern Alberta, Canada, 45 miles from the nearest paved road. She graduated from college with a B.S.  in Nursing, a career which spanned 40 years. Now a grand-mother of six, she lives in Monroe, NC with her husband. Her hobbies include scrap-booking and the occasional forays into acrylic painting and writing poetry.

Ruth is an active member of the poetry group, who meet monthly at the Indian Trail Cultural Arts Center, for poetry open mic. Her poem Movie Theater Magic was inspired by the July monthly poetry prompt theme, "Saturday Night Cinema of Poetry" where participants wrote about their most memorable movie experience.

*This poem was used with permission by the author.