NOT MYSELF

Prose poem.

I’ve been put in this position before.

Waking up in the middle of the night

to utter phrases

not my own

(and with no one to hear them).

Reviews

[Glen Yumang Manese]

Rutherford - Indeed a well stated verse...Good to read your work…Thanks for the invite to read your thoughts to paper at Writers Café...I'm back to work with copy writer and doing my best to write 1000 words a day...and a subject you do not get to choose...will be busy the next few months...so I will read all RR"s might just take a bit longer to get a review...hope you understand...plus promote my book: The Onyx - Vena Amoris...for late next month release…I have very little time on my hands…making the most of everyday and taking today to read as many as I can…keep writing and sharing your creative talent here and elsewhere…

[Joyce S. Greene]

In my house, it's my husband who sometimes talks in his sleep and I have to wake him up to shut him up! LOL Most likely those phrases did come from your own mouth (especially if you're all alone at the time! lol) I wonder, if a sleep talker talks in the forest with no one to hear him. does he really makes a sound? See where your poem leads the reader, rutherford? Good work, this is a real brain teaser.

[Azure Montessa (Blue)]

Intriguing, creepy, mysterious. I love the vagueness of this piece. :)

[Rita L. Sev]

A mystery in the night - whose words are they in the witching hour? Do we recognize them in the light of day? An intriguing short piece, John.

[OTownPete]

Happens to me quite regularly and then my wife snores and brings me back to reality. Well said so succinctly my friend. Your friend in words, Pete

[Michael G. Smith]

Interesting poem that raises the age old questions are we all alone or living between netherworlds.

[Pryde Foltz]

I'm left with questions--nightmares, prophecies, or gift of the muses. Loved this piece for its intriguing nature.

[rutherford]

One of those where you can't sleep 'cause you have to write the words down and you wonder the next morning if it was worth the effort. If you were intrigued, that's worth it.

[Tam Warink]

Yes, that is most strange and oft times startling in retrospect. It happens to certain individuals. Our learned medical community ascribes it to the byproduct of tangible chemistry of body or brain or physics of molecules; so urbane. I prefer to consider the mysterious and all of those things that drive one delirious; demons, angles, gods on high, aliens, telepathy, quantum synchronicities... oh my, I've done it again. So sorry my friend.

[rutherford]

No apologies needed--I may be in a state of mediocre delirium. Reminds me of a favorite quote that doesn't quite fit, "we have to be faithful to our own nightmare." (Joseph Conrad)

[Tam Warink]

How quaintly odd! You know, I am not read of that J. Conrad so I did what everyone does these days when a bit of immortal their ignorance is exposed; I Googled it. Bless those writers of Wikipedia fame, for this line caught my eye (no shame), "He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe." Now, this is peculiar, to say the least, as I was examining to quote you mentioned and in my mind it became thus: ".. to lose faith and scorn the mare at night is a horror beyond keeping."

How is it possible for the mind to intuit, between the lines, so to speak, the nature of an authors topical predilections? Perhaps I make too much of chance and not wonder so much that the wind blows this time of season.

[rutherford]

I think Conrad is one of the greatest writers of the english language and english was not his first language (he was born in Poland). If you read one book of his, read Heart of Darkness. I went back and found the exact quote to be respectful of the man. "... it was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

[Tam Warink]

You've set me a quest, Conrad. Thank you! :)