Tag Archives: surreal

Nightmare Hotel [Free Verse]

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Creepy Artwork in a small business hotel near Tallinn, Estonia's Old Town.
The image was hung on the wall
   in an otherwise clean and well-
   managed business hotel.

I can't really say that I'd ever had
   that particular nightmare before
   I checked into the room,
 But I know I've had it many times 
    since. 

Set atop a post on a brutal white
    sand beach in a stifling burlap
    onesie -- a onesie that one
    would have to have been sewn into, 
    for it had no zippers, buckles,
    buttons, or Velcro.

What was the nightmare?
   To be seen, while not seeing?
   Suffocating slowly -- held under
      the high tide with waterlogged
      cloth clinging to my face?
   Arms pinioned as the seabirds
      went to work on tearing through 
      cloth and skin in as few
      vicious pecks as possible --
         pristine white growing 
         blood crimson stains,
         running down the pole,
         dripping onto the sand.
   All of the above? 

I never have a good memory of it.
   That's why I'm not sure that I
      didn't have the nightmare
      even before I ever saw that
      poster on the wall of an
      ordinary hotel -- far, far 
      from home.

Goblin [Free Verse]

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After dark —-
   A city park —-
 There runs the thing
   That comes to life
      By night.
 Caged in stillness 
   Through sunlit hours.
 Its night persona
   Is blurred movement 
      Seen only from the
        Corner of an eye.
 It stays near deep shadow,
   Beyond the lamp lit arcs.

 Where is it?
 No one knows,
   But if one were to 
      Check the cathedral
        Spire, you’d find
        Only an impenetrable
        Void… 
                 until sunup.

Tree Flight [Free Verse]

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On a hike,
    I come upon a tree
       Raised up on its roots,
       As if in mid-stride --
       A long, cartoonish stride
   That stretches across the trail.

But the tree doesn't stir -- 
   No matter how quietly I wait;
   No matter how long I wait.

Oh, how I wish to catch the tree
   As it flees.

Falling [Lyric Poem]

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The days of riches are now behind.
 I think I thought I lost my mind --
 It fell into a deep, dark hole 
   When my severed head took a roll
   Up to the lip, over the edge,
  Falling -- I took a solemn pledge:
 That my skull drop so straight and true
   To hit bottom and rip straight through
      To the other side.

Mirror World [Free Verse]

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Right-side-up or upside-down?

The flooded country becomes
   a mirror world.

I spin in float
   on a coracle boat --
      mind fuzzy,
      orientation unclear.

I feel I could flip,
   and not take a dip,
      but be righted 
      upside-down,
   in the world beyond.

Melting Clocks [Free Verse]

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Waking to a world in which
    Space & Time misbehave:

Shapes slump,
   Even melting into pools,
   Oozing to flatness, then 
     Over the edge and
     Into nowhere.

Time moves in riverine fashion:
     Rushing in the chokepoints
     And lazing in the wide plains.
     Though still flowing 
       Inexorably and unidirectionally.

The illusion tries
   To reveal itself,
     But who can understand...

“A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

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Take this kiss upon the brow!
 And, in parting from you now,
 Thus much let me avow --
 You are not wrong, who deem
 That my days have been a dream;
 Yet if hope has flown away
 In a night, or in a day,
 In a vision, or in none,
 Is it therefore the less gone?
 All that we see or seem
 Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
 Of a surf-tormented shore,
 And I hold within my hand
 Grains of the golden sand --
 How few! yet how they creep
 Through my fingers to the deep,
 While I weep -- while I weep!
 O God! Can I not grasp
 Them with a tighter clasp?
 O God! can I not save
 One from the pitiless wave?
 Is all that we see or seem
 But a dream within a dream?

“Be Not Afeard” [from The Tempest] by William Shakespeare [w/ Audio]

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Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises,
 Sound and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. 
 Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
 Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices,
 That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep,
 Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
 The clouds methought would open and show riches
 Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak'd 
 I cried to dream again.

NOTE: In The Tempest, Act III: Scene 2, Caliban speaks these words to Stephano and Trinculo.

Off-Kilter [Free Verse]

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woke up,
   stitched up;
 something growing
   deep within

inside /
   outside
 what strange hell 
    is this?

what's this box i
   built within my brain:
 old ideas keeping
    out the light

i read a story,
   made a movie --
 all within my mind,

but something grew out
   that i couldn't comprehend

Boxless Box [Free Verse]

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There you sit
in a boxless box --
 
unmoving,

but thinking 
about moving.

Then, stretching 
one trembling hand
out to its fullest extent,

you feel fingers
press into nothing, 
but a hard kind of nothing.