30 Poems in 30 Days, Day 2 (second poem)
The prompt was, "Write a poem that begins with you waking up." John also dropped some strong hints that we might choose to write about a dream. I didn't in my first poem for this prompt, but then decided to do that too. Just for the heck of it, and because I was wanting to play with this form, I made each verse a shadorma.
The old dream
startles me awake.
So often
in childhood …
but why does it return now,
the dream of falling?
Falling deep
between rocky walls,
a chasm.
Too slowly.
And faces leering at me –
distorted faces.
Was it Hell
that awaited me
far down there?
A child’s Hell
from fairy-tales – Grimm horrors –
and my inner dark.
I can’t know,
I never landed;
kept floating
down and down.
What demons now reclaim me –
now that I am old?
I like this poem a lot and I think the shadorma really goes with the subject. It gives it a sort of stilted, slowed down falling feeling, just like you describe.
ReplyDeleteI have falling dreams too and always have done. Usually there is a chase first for me, then I trip and fall, and usually it is a huge dark hole and I can see what is around me no more than I can see what is at the bottom.
I only ever remember being already in the act of falling, and the rest as described - much too slowly for real life, but of course in the dream it feels real.
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