The Story Is Still Being Written

I have published seven poetry collections.

I have been featured on Spectrum News 1. I have given books away to people who could not afford them, because I always believed that words should reach whoever needs them — not just whoever can pay.

I built .

None of it came from a perfect life.

It came from a boy locked in a room with a red dictionary.

It came from ears black and blue that nobody asked about twice.

It came from Franklin Street, from Mina, from Portland, from a sober house, from a housing voucher fought for in a New England winter.

It came from the rape I named out loud instead of hiding.

It came from the HIV diagnosis I carried forward instead of letting it stop me.

It came from a sister who said something true even in the middle of an argument:

Vinny, you’re never seen, but you’re always heard.

Vincent Poe is a person who kept writing.

Through the abuse. Through the addiction. Through the homelessness and the survival years and the cities and the losses and the diagnoses and the moments where continuing felt impossible.

He kept writing.

The boy with the red dictionary believed words could open doors.

The man writing today knows they also close wounds.

The pen is still moving.

The story is still being written.

— Vincent Poe