Nocturne in Blue

NOCTURNE IN BLUE


To dream in certain nights
is to feel a particular grief
kept hid by day’s blinding light.

For often in my dream-state
my wife’s forever run away--
I, unable to follow in her flight.

What does it mean? I ask.    
Why does her shadow self
hide from me in these times?

Dreams follow life as our nights
follow day. Every thing comes
to roost in matters of the mind.

Necessarily, she sleeps in her
hospital bed, I, on my own--
a matter of forced separation.

Her dreams, you see, no longer
touch mine--that like our flesh,
that lies alone in nightly isolation.

Reviews

[Einstein Noodle]

oh my ... heart wrenching kentuck! well said .. natural rhyme and smooth rhythm in your words and lines .. the picture and characters so easy to hang my own life experiences around .. my wife and mother of our children died at a very early age .. 30yrs old .. now our four children have all surpassed her life in years ... the sadness ... the seperation .. the dreams and dreaming are brilliant says i .. so glad i stopped to read and say hi! it has been a while since i have visited you ... solid poetry ... deeply emotive ... love the dream work .. so sorry in what you and your wife are going through ... i am assuming this is confessional ... if not .. you are an even better sensitive than i thought ... thanks for sharing ...
E.

[kentuck14]

Yes Noodle . .. all is true . . . but we have adapted.
Thank you for your generous review. Have to get over and look at your stuff . . . . been kinds lazy lately.
T

[Einstein Noodle]

heart and prayers for you and all your family

[Einstein Noodle]

ps. great title ... just saying it lays a heavy cloak over me ... Nocturne in Blue ..brilliant!!

[Pennywriter]

A sad, yet beautiful poem. The title, by the way, is splendid. It sounds like the title of a piano requiem.

[kentuck14]

Thanks for your words, penny.
T

[Chris Shaw]

Tom, this is a most moving read. The dream that one day you will be permanently separated from your wife, is one that most in their more mature years contemplate.

Already you are missing her as she is separated from you in her hospital bed. Your subconscious self is in its own way preparing for what one day will become a reality. One of you will die first. That is what we don't ever think about in our younger years.

The mind works in strange ways, but your love for her is evident here. Beautiful write.

Chris

[kentuck14]

Thanks for the kind words, Chris. And Yes . . . a separation of any kind can be difficult.
T

[Carolynn]

What a sorrowful way to end a life of sharing the intimate comforts of a shared bed - it must be so difficult to adjust. I’m sure your love remains unchanged despite the change in your sleeping arrangements.

[kentuck14]

One learns to do what one must do. Yes . . . if love were as fragile as a couple's sleeping arrangements . . . where would we be. Thanks for commenting.
T

[Lydia Shutter]

What a melancholy write this is, Kentuck. To watch a spouse lying in a hospital bed and not to be able to change what is.....horribly sad. No, you and your wife will not be in the same realm someday. Unfortunately, that is how it goes. The love you feel for her is strong here. Beautifully written. LydI**

[kentuck14]

Thanks for your kind words, Lydi.
T

[Eilis]

What a mournful poem. I have a sense that no matter how long we live with someone there will always be things we don’t understand about them. The inner life is a kingdom only the individual can truly enter, so in a sense, we are always exiled from at least one aspect of those we love.

I couldn’t help but feel that the dreams were a kind of manifestation of the feeling that illness itself is a separation. The hospital bed representing the illness—a kind of frontier no one but the infirm person can enter. And no matter how badly we want to be there with them, they continue moving towards experiences that we are not capable of sharing with them. At least in the sense that we cannot understand what it is like to be them.

This is quite moving, Tom. It is like the perspective of the one who loves as he realizes a separation is inevitable. It has, in fact, already begun with the discontinuation of the shared bed. And the dreams just seem to amplify the developing feelings.

Great work, from a poetry perspective. Though quite sad in the reading.

[kentuck14]

thank you for understanding this poem. This was just in the course of my wife's muscular dystrophy. yes, illness does force separation. For a long time she has not been able to join in some of the things we use to do together. Actually it was her who recognized the possible relationship between the dreams and our sleeping arrangements. Thanks for commenting on this piece.
T

[Robert Trakofler]

I can so feel the lament in these lines Tuck:( it reminds me of an old feeling I had about a character in a film that is immortal everyone wishes to be immortal but to live on past all of your connections and loves would in truth be very painful when you think about it:( I know nobody ever really goes but to be alone even when surrounded is a hard feeling

[kentuck14]

How true my friend . . . thanks for sharing.
T

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this is so sad...the nightly isolation....forced by that of which we have no control...
deep sadness here....especially when even the dreams can no longer touch.
j.

[kentuck14]

The dreams leave me feeling sad. Thanks for revuing, J.
T