I am Jack Nicholson sitting at the typewriter in The Shining. 

But I am Jack with a difference.  

I am Jack in the original version envisaged by Stanley.  

The version that existed before  

Stanley went berserk  

and butchered his masterpiece,  

cutting out the one scene  

that would explain everything. 

I am left with a question.  

Why?  

Why, Stanley, why?  

The scene was filmed.  

It was conceived,  

scripted, rehearsed, performed, shot, printed  

and cut. Why?  

In the scene, Jack discovers a scrapbook  

full of newspaper clippings,  

where the history of the Overlook  

becomes the history of midnight.  

We know,  

even in the butchered version of The Shining,  

that the scrapbook is fundamental.  

It appears in – I’ve counted – nine scenes.  

With no explanation.  

When Jack first screams at Wendy,  

it occupies a third of the screen.  

We’re supposed to think,  

‘Look, the pestilential scrapbook 

is goading him on,’  

but we can’t think the scrapbook  

is goading him on  

because 

we don’t know it’s a scrapbook,  

we don’t know it’s full of newspaper clippings  

and we don’t know it’s the history of midnight.  

Stanley cut out the scene  

where Jack discovers the scrapbook,  

yet left the book to occupy a third of the screen! 

There is and there is not a scrapbook  

in the butchered version of The Shining.  

But I don’t need ambiguity right now.  
I need existence.

Later, Jack says to Grady,  

‘I saw your picture in the newspapers.’  

Jack has read all about Grady  

chopping up his wife and twin daughters  

before blowing his brains out.  

But what ‘newspapers’?  

There are no ‘newspapers.’  

Stanley cut out the scene  

that explains the reference to newspapers:  

the one scene that would explain everything. 

Worse, when you search at midnight for:  

‘Can I book a room at the Overlook Hotel?’ 

‘When was Grady the caretaker?’ 

‘Do the twins symbolise  

the Gemini space program?’  

‘Why the hell did Wendy marry Jack  

in the first place?’ 

‘The maze,’ 

‘The minotaur,’  

‘Breaking news on Covid death toll,’ 

‘Tips on keeping a lockdown journal,’  

‘How the fuck do you stop seeing fucking ghosts  

after 93 fucking days in motherfucking isolation?’  

and ‘SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME  

STREAM  

THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE SHINING  

WHERE JACK DISCOVERS THE SCRAPBOOK,’ 

you can, indeed, discover the scrapbook.  

Because the scrapbook exists.  

It exists as a real, solid, three-dimensional entity – 

deep in the Stanley Archive.  

And deep in the Stanley Archive  

there’s a message scribbled in the scrapbook.  

And though this message may not explain everything, 

it does I think explain enough.  

And I’ll be honest.  

In the original version of this poem,  

I told you what the message screams.  

But then, at midnight, like your heart,  
I cut it out.