Before the Lights go Down

(A reader said something nice about one of my poems. This has emboldened me. I'm not actually that apologetic. I think there should be more poetry in our lives, even bad poetry, and that is should not be siphoned off into specialist magazines and readings and pamphlets.

This one is about the cinema, a very poetic subject to me.)

Before the Lights go Down

This is the place outside of place,
The never-ending room.
Soon now, soon now, the light will trace
A story in its gloom;
In darkness as of outer space
Or the life-making womb.

There waits for you, within these walls,
A life from life apart.
A silence more than silence calls
Like music to your heart.
The lights go down; the darkness falls;
A world's about to start.