Insomniac Dreamer

 

While tracing a moonlit path of flattened want and stones,

I came upon this place, you see, that only sleep should know:

 

The sky was see-through black, a pitchless sea of midnight hue,

Covered by a film of haze, rolling dust and mist imbued.

 

An esoteric luminary filled every wakeless shore,

Telling of a gospel tale from gasping times of yore.

 

These sibylline majestic beings illumined through the shroud,

Enticing every unlived truth from the oaths I had avowed.

 

I fell onto my wrists and knees, writhing, clutching at my tears,

But the flow had formed into a mirror of all my swelling fears,

 

Before my hands beneath my eyes, lied a blameless machination,

To understand that empty canvas of dreaded fascination,

 

I tried to look beyond its lines, but lost the track of youth,

And saw within my screaming portrait, Gray’s revealing truth…

 

Those jaded eyes of sleepless nights intently stared in hate,

For sanity, their cherished love, endured a mindless fate.

 

To roam that shore with mute intent was never what they sought,

But here they saw with epic loss, the death of musing thought.

 

I stood asleep quite graceless, with vacant open eyes,

And walked on forth, along the path of vast and fruitless skies,

 

The blank expression seen before on that empty canvas wall

Became the final resting place for my fleeting, arcane scrawl.

 

Here, I write to you, someone, so you may see what you should learn,

Though do not seek this dream, my friend, or you shall not return.

 

Seek your bed and seek it well, for life is all too sore,

But if you should condemn my words, your sleep shall be no more.

 

Then you will find this place I found while roaming through the night,

And have the treasured chance to see what comes from sleepless sight:

 

While tracing a moonlit path of flattened want and stones,

I came upon this place, you see, that only sleep should know.

Reviews

[Blackbirdsong]

Such exquisite rhyming couplets. What a treasure to find right before I go to sleep. This poem feels timeless as if it could have been written many years ago or yesterday. Brilliant work.

[Nyida Strong]

Very interesting and visual. We all suffer from the torments of the night, but here you have made the things we know so well into something frightening. The flow and rhythm is exceptional. The rhythm you've chosen is difficult to master, but you have managed it in one.

N. Strong