My house is in order!
I shout to a cosmos
intent on ignoring my pleas
chthonic forces insist
on invading dreams
psychic locks ineffectual
no barriers to protect
when soul mocks
purported equilibrium
Order, spirit answers,
is a temporal concept;
continue to grow.
(For Ragtag Community’s prompt: temporal. Image from personal collection.)
Creativity’s
an eight-legged
life-sized terror,
has me cornered –
those menacing eyes
and crushing mandibles
paralyzingly frightful –
about to be consumed,
I throw her some cheese.
Sleeping alone –
so intrusive –
a child born of
so many intentions
awash in a trail
of barricades
I cope, cook up
breezes, strike
wet ground,
stuff myself
to satiate
the onslaught
ground rapidly
shifting –
Earth Mother
exerting presence –
too stubborn,
I turn away
Look for
God, but my
cup keeps moving –
I am unreachable,
charmed by
a broken tale
aimless,
oppositional,
overwhelmed –
cry out but
absence holds
no listeners
need adhesive
to fix this urgency –
a peerless torrent –
if only I could simplify
these wounds
find a stopgap
emotion
bubbles up
overflows
manifests
external turmoil
replaying sorrow
sleep offers
no repair
alone
tormented
by the issue
at hand.
(Image: blogs.voanews.com)
(Note: Inspiration for my poetry is derived from the Dreamtime. Occasionally, a nightmare will evoke the creation of a short story. A recent nightmare continues to haunt me, so I have attempted both forms of literature to garner new meaning. The poem follows and the prose version can be seen here. Which form offers more insights I wonder? objectivity in the form of comments appreciated.
Nightmare: A Poem
Melancholy hovers, haunts,
fed by isolation, taunts
threads of sanity.
Darkness, incomplete,
reveals movement –
trickery of light?
Fear’s grip renders
motionless its victim
serenity shattered
Logic has no tolerance
for the undefined,
ghosts off-limits
Is disease the culprit,
inflammation upsetting
equilibrium, a mind aflame?
The veil between worlds
is flimsy, unhinged, shifts
awareness now peaked
I know you are there!
Show yourself!
Stillness.
Madness threatening,
pleas gather insistence
Come forward – be known!
These are merely games
one reality pit against
another, neither winning
A feminine figure emerges –
her presence emitting an aura
of alarm, indicates a window
Two figures, cloaked in black
towering shadows stalking
live prey, the scent of vulnerability
The ego withdraws, seeks
cover, cannot stop the onslaught
of monsters emerging from walls
Delusion, one last prayer for sanity
but the floorboards recede, reveal
skeletons, there is no escape
They always take the back roads,
virginal snow-covered lanes
lined with trees: pastoral views
Unmarked routes, out of sight,
use the innocence of landscape
to blot out their dark intentions
Pristine picture perfect scenes
lull the unsuspecting; breath-
taking vistas; secret keepers
The roads still exist in my dreams
the trees like soldiers, stiff and stark
stripped of their magical allure, now
guard the memories, painted red
with the loss of purity; I had not
guessed the danger of woods
Child mind incapable of conceiving
what wolves roamed in nature
the blood of their victims crimson
stains forever etched in silhouette
the shrillness of their screams
now silent echoes in the night.
(Image: www.flickr.com)
One Woman's Quest 