Whistling Past the Graveyard

“Kochel Graveyard” by Wassily Kandinsky

 

push the dream

down the line

it can wait

there’s no rush

look ahead

make a plan

loosely set

time will come

always does

then again

sometimes time

just runs out

Night Writing

“Sea of Dreams” by Pol Ledent

 

dripping with dreams

fluid notions paint the mind

subliminal art

Perigee Moon

“Moon Dreams” by Jonn Einerssen

 

draw the silk of the night

through the window

slip it under the sash

pull it snug into swaddling

for each newborn dream

thank the perigee moon

for fertility proudly instilled

in the womb of the mind

for the gift of its gleaming

irradiant source

for a soft incubation

subconscious creations

recombinant thoughts

who live unexplained lives

in their pieces and wholes

who will grow to maturity

reaching a kind of old age

with a shadowy wisdom

available briefly to grasp

with the fingers of sleep

before fleeing like smoke

called to home in the ether

the magical hour of

psychosomatic

entreaty by time

in obeisant turn to a

regnant new dawn

Zero Gravity

“Resolving Power” by Matthew Stone

 

weightless in freefall
sweet inner space rhapsody
blissful is the dream
unoppressed by the agony
reigning wakeful hours

float in the freedom
burdens banished to the breeze
remember the feel
exquisite delight drawn from
years of easy bravado

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Riverthink

Dream Smoke

“Death at the Helm” by Edvard Munch

 

the door is unbarred

but you know

you’re not welcome here

turn away now

find some other old man

someone ready

to take the cold bones

of your hand

heed the gesture you make

with that scythe

to follow you into the ends

of the night

set your black cowl and cloak

for another soul

mine isn’t ready for hell

I have yet to

acquire any fear or regret

without them

your powers are thwarted

so leave now

abandon my doorstep before

I grab hold of

your moldering shadow and

make of you

nothing but figment illusory

dream smoke

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Admonition

“Night Sky Over Desert Dunes” by Kathryn Beals

 

teach the dream
to the night
lest it perish
when you waken

 

 

From my book Range of Motion

Pathétique

“Tormented” by Helena Wierzbicki

 

in a secret black box
with tarnished lead locks

sit wings that I ripped
from faeries who slipped

through fencing I built
from splinters of guilt

no room in my mind
for tiny unkind

impish creatures
whose features

would mock and remind
of crimes I resigned

to bury down deep
inside wrinkles of sleep

I pierced them like thrips
with ragwort stem tips

then chewed them to mash
in a mouthful of ash

and set down my head
near the foot of the bed

on the secret black box
with tarnished lead locks

 

 

From my books Range of Motion and Legacies (vol. 1)

Futurepast

 

“Warp Speed” by Thomas Woolworth

 
if I could fly faster than time
beyond reach of tomorrows
I might just recover my yesterdays
live them again with more grace
recast my old age with some dignity
passion and pride once so fierce
given over to patience and modesty

faster than time is a speed that needs
magic momentum of mind
special powers of dreamscape
creating remarkable visions
behind sleeping eyes from the
yearnings of penitent conscience
to make the impossible possible

Conscience Never Sleeps

“Conscience” by kharlamov

 

it happened in a dream
I became king of the world
but the world didn’t care

so I stepped from the throne
and a monster took my place
then the world was afraid

I painfully pondered
what my conscience commanded
while the whole world suffered

could I kill the monster
without becoming one too
thank God it was a dream

 

 

(originally posted March 2013)

Pillows

“To die, to sleep, no more” by David Rosen

 

pillows absorb

nightly traumas

the sweat-soaking panoply

thrilling and plaguing

this human condition

but how much

before they explode

beneath heads

too engrossed

in subconscious

delight or despair

give notice of

death in the night

 

 

(originally posted October 2013)