trapped in
someone else’s dream again
backed into harness,
thrown the reins to them
taken the bit
willingly
stupid, she
try to do right
looks a lot like
acquiescence
from behind
the bridle
nice
don’t win fights
easy
to ride
the least-resistant
road
galloping by
questions
of true desire
in the spaces in
sleep I haiku, recall but
one line when awake
another night in
sweaty sheets I plot a whole
novel, also gone
every day I try
to mark time, just moments, brain
leaps, thin, minnow-bright
beach-star dances, dawn
waves enjoying one final
twinkle before fade
Photo: Josie Tebo
dreamt I fell in love
it was so simple
like a small clear window
didn’t have to search for it
didn’t have to try
your clean, sudden lines
eyes smiling in delight
you said
it’s us now, forever
for however long that lasts
I laughed, and said
you know
I used to find you annoying
with your past life, past wives…
our movie showed a map
we travelled across Tanzania
on the coca-cola croc train
stopping here and there
to refill our canteen
dreamt I fell in love
it was so simple
looked down and it was there
like a small clear window
certainty at last
a strip of perfect light
dreamt I fell in love
oh, come back night
I played around with trying to turn this into a sonnet but it didn’t work so well. Maybe it’s a ‘deconstructed sonnet’.
Photo: https://unsplash.com/@joelmwakasege
Added to dVerse open link night
Here we are unneighbours
ignorrelated peoples of
a vast and ambivicity
falsenatural scents crushed under
bootstep and paveground down
an insalubri-sewer lurking at
ankleheight and laughing
with its darklode of
chattertat, the importathoughts nolongerseemed
unlistened to, unscreamed, suffocatbreathed
we ceasedream and retreat
Todays prompt: to write a poem that incorporates neologisms. What’s that? Well, it’s a made-up word! Your neologisms could be portmanteaus (basically, a word made from combining two existing words, like “motel” coming from “motor” and “hotel”) or they could be words invented entirely for their sound. Probably the most famous example of a poem incorporating neologisms is Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, but neologisms don’t have to be funny or used in the service of humor. You can use them to try to get at something that you don’t have an exact word for, or to create a sense of sound and rhythm, or simply to make the poem feel strange and unworldly.
I did this nonsense-word poem and the compound-word poem above.
I dreamt that instead
of surf camp
You came to Zurich
And stupidly I
panicked as
The house was a mess
It was you and her
my mermaids
A lovely surprise
You believed surf camp!
April fool!
We’re here to see you!
Of course you won’t read
this because
You are riding waves.
I’m giving National Poetry Month a go – write one poem, per day throughout April. Today’s prompt/challenge was to write a Lune – a Haiku-style three-line poem with a 5-3-5 syllable count. (I’ve done a few stanzas).
clairevetica 