March 31, 2012

poem 112 of a poem a day for 2012



symphony dream in the key of A minor abstraction 

office building
in the faded light
part of the day
there might be
a dozen of us
inside a glass society breakdown
outside the architecture of meltdown
soldiers on ropes in adjacent buildings
are attacked by unseen forces
people become reactive
though I remain strangely calm
and venture to exit the building
and even though it seemed
to be under some sort of lock-down
every door was opened
to the wind whipped up
with the Sun following
its destiny into the horizon
squeezing time between things

saw shape shifters many of them
soldiers were fighting them
soldier came up to me and said
good luck stay here
in the middle of the road
and make sure
this person is okay
until an ambulance arrives
I drag the person
to the grass and watch
as the soldier leaves
and the myriad undulations
of innumerable crows dance
into view above the wind

moving and swirling closer
til I'm caught up in black
in all that I see
the congeals into
the densest murmur
of crows that might ever be
catching gasps for breath
before turning its entirety
into a woman with the brightest
dark wide eyes I have ever seen
she didn't seem dangerous
just misunderstood and
completely at ease
when she smiled at me
with my mouth still open
as she watched me
watch her skin as it radiated
in momentary sheen
popping in and out of the shift
without words
I was convinced of her validity
and I drew to her way
and her guiding hand unseen

soldiers in this instant
became robots with humanity
squeezed from them toothpaste
bled until spent and empty
waiting metal to be recycled
returned the Earth
returned to the rust of animals
and the shepherding of forests
back to the stars
I became convinced
we were all like this
even those still trapped
by the building held tight
to what once was when
we were all shifters then
but some how lost the link
lost the way to the garden
lost the way to the part of night
that says shhh  
let's finger paint again
every one of our dawns
outside the window

EJR ©








Hello...so this came from a recent dream/nightmare, and as most of them are similarly themed,I thought it would be appropriate to share...I have always been chased by the bloated grotesque of humanity's abandonment of emotional connection in a society or civilization e.g."Lord of the Flies", "Brave New World"...growing up, emotionally and physically abandoned probably led to my connection to this archetypal fear of never knowing Eden if you were born outside of it...though these days with fear a contagion too...most of my dream-state monsters are of this kind of concrete and steel as metaphor for the slow increments of coffin-izing our souls...zombie virus,bird flu,spanish flu and hordes in the unseen that shift shape to show us how to abandon our fear and climb through to ourselves again...back to the garden through the darkest part of the night right before the Dawn...Edward


Thank You to Stu McPherson and the folks at dversepoets.com for this blood-thirsty prompt.

6 comments:

  1. And I thought my dreams were detailed :) I bow to your imagination.

    ReplyDelete
  2. humanity squeezed from them like toothpaste..nice...some really cool textures and details to really set the scene...i like..

    and the myriad undulations
    of innumerable crows dance
    into view above the wind

    some great story telling edward....surreal but i was there..

    ReplyDelete
  3. This surrealism in this is just so symptomatic of our dreams- chopping from one scene to the next- shape shifting- undulating- the background information gave some insight here- I can see the abandonment- the birds turning into a woman- a mother figure maybe- and in the last stanza showing a desire or a unconscious thought about love and being loved. There are emotional layers in this that are very brave to share - but this is poetry- this is what helps us survive..and I applaud you for sharing yours. Fantastic descriptions- I was seeing this shapeshift- soldiers, soulless robots- damn- the human imagination is an amazing thing

    ReplyDelete
  4. So coherent and yet disjoint - this is written almost as if you woke up after a dream and started writing in a journal by your bedside.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Loved this wild ride, especially

    I was convinced of her validity
    and I drew to her way
    and her guiding hand unseen

    Several times in the past an unkindness of ravens landed in the yard, so much iridescent black dotting the white snow and cream colored aspens that awake I was stunned. Thank you for the intriguing poetry and glimpse into your psyche.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i like the shapeshifter, but tell me, does this ever resolved into C Major?

    semantic feeling


    verification makes it really hard to comment. you'd get more comments if you turned it off

    ReplyDelete

Hello there ...