Nightmare Charm
To awaken undisturbed
or at all
I unclench my fist
freeing darkness.
How to transcribe the dead’s tune?
They float
within they float
within,
fear’s cascading grip transcending sleep
O at the Edges
Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
O at the Edges 
This one will haunt me; I wish I wasn’t so familiar with the phenomenon you evoke so well! Here’s to more pleasant dreams…
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Only on rare occasions do I have terrifying dreams. But when I do…
Most of my nightmares are “frustration” dreams – things go wrong no matter what I do, and I can never seem to fix the problems.
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In my opinion, those are the worst!
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Those, and the “back to school” dreams, in which I’ve not attended a class (usually math) all semester, but have to take the final exam.
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The night before my LTYM reading last week, I dreamed I had forgotten how to read. 😀 Ha!
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That is truly funny, Jilanne!
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Pingback: Nightmare Charm – lehcarias
Haunting, eerie, surreal…you captured it perfectly!
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It sounds like you’ve lived it too, Tanya.
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I love the repetition “they float within they float within”…rhythm and tempo of the heart beating fast…(K)
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Oh, yes. Pounding!
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Mesmeric, terrifying, discombobulating poetry [no pun intended]. No matter what, you shine, Robert!
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Thanks, Leigh. I’ve written about a half-dozen of these “charm” poems, in which the poems themselves serve as “charms” for or against events, feelings, emotions. This is the first to see the light of day.
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i have a recurring dream that someone i know drives me somewhere & leaves me there. “there” is absolutely pitch black, a sort of void where you are disorientated by the amount of darkness, like i think St John describes the dark in Revelations, as one you can feel. i usually wake up & i am unaware because the darkness & disorientation of the dream leaks into a waking stupor. it usually takes a few minutes of fumbling around till i recognize something & realise i am in my bed. it happened once while i was in Germany in someones house & i nearly pulled the curtains in their living room down. i say all this as i don’t know if i did “unclench my fist” it would release enough dark. thought you’d appreciate a story, as plenty of other people can praise your talent for me, you know how much i admire your work already.
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That darkness is often difficult to release, even when you’re fully awake. And thank you for the story – I do appreciate it.
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Hauntingly real, Bob, the kind of poem that lingers and awakens memories. Having worked as a hospital orderly as a college student, I’ve taken a number of patients that I knew to the morgue to deposit what remains of them. I was with my mother when she was dying, a very touching memory that your poem reawakens. Thank you for writing and sharing this poem
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The things that touch us often stay with us, don’t they? Thank you, George.
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Nightmares–oh-too-frequent, which is why I avoid “bedtime” till I’m falling asleep on the couch 🙂 I was interested to read you have the “school” ones…I used to have those too, but not so much now; still have some “job” ones–where I’m on the bus to my office in my nightgown… 🙂
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And some of the school dreams were entwined with work dreams!
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YES, mine too–horrors!!
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Just letting you know that M Chaillot is now Stella–new blog 🙂
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Thanks for letting me know.
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Sure, I can’t afford to lose the good ones!
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Ha!
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Wow, powerful. I, too, have felt so. If you are interested in a wonderful book on analyzing your personal dream symbology, I would recommend Robert A. Johnson’s “Inner Work” — Jungian based, incredibly useful. It has shed incredible light on the symbols in my dream and their meanings. 🙂
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Thank you for the recommendation, Carrie. I’ll take a look. Another book to read!
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Describes how I sleep most nights
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Ouch. Not restful at all.
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Describes how I sleep most nights
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“I unclench my fist
freeing darkness …”
Now, those phrase is really a something. Powerfully brilliant, Robert!
Just love it.
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Thank you, Sherrie. Much appreciated, as always.
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You’re welcome, Robert!
(❁´◡`❁)
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I love how the layout of this poem adds to the feeling of detachment and between-ness.
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Hmm. Just noticed that my reply hadn’t posted. The form for this one, and the others in the series, is rather open and supports, I hope, that feeling of betweenness perhaps off-balance.
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