I try my best to use positive influences when writing poetry, it’s too easy to slip into that ‘dark place’ and begin ranting in rhyme. Sometimes that brings great results! Today I’m feeling optimistic, and so here’s a little something based on my happiest influence. Have a great Saturday folks!
WE
She breathes the warmth of life into my empty notebooks, my humblest biro soliloquies gain wings, feathered with affinities for all the breathtaking possibilities of a life spent not with I but we.
This May I married my soulmate. As of today we have been been wed for just 120 days, though we lent our souls to each other nearly 14 years ago. I proposed under a starlit moon bathed evening sky, and she said yes, making it the happiest and simultaneously most nerve-racking moment of my life.
The rest is history in the making (for us anyway), and this is just a small thank you to her for making my life feel so special.
Evening Sky
She is my evening sky
fresh jasmin on a cool breeze,
the dayās sunās final sigh,
a gentle stroke across leaves
the soft rustling in gardens
the goodnight song
of robins in trees.
Sheās the spectrum of blues hugging golds,
shadow shapes in pencilled clouds
the first hopeful star as daylight folds.
She is every constellation shining
the glittering shimmer of unknown worlds
and the brilliant corona of the full moon rising.
It’s time to get back on it! I’ve neglected this blog for far too long, and the time is right to kick myself back into gear.
STEREOSCOPIC is an illustrated short poem about our busy world filled with tragic distractions. We should all pay more attention to the people, the things, and the activities we love.
Hello and good morning! Today’s poem marks the end of the “On Dreams” series, and the beginning of a NEW MYSTERY PROJECT (which will remain secret for now…).
“And if you only dream while youāre asleep, youāre doing it all wrong my friend.”
Which is a sentiment I stand by! I’ve been writing about dreams for as long as I can remember in one form or another. I have kept dream diaries and logs, I have turned dreams into stories, I have even been inspired in my day job by a dream from the night before. And I’m sure many of you out there in the world have done the same! I feel however that we perhaps overpay homage to the overnight dream, and underplay the importance of daydreaming. Perhaps this is due, in part to the negative connotations which have been attached to the notion of daydreaming by people in positions of authority (teachers, bosses, supervisors, parents). Perhaps we ourselves see daydreaming as a timewasting activity! Well, I’m here to disagree…and I will explain myself!
How often per day do you stop doing what you’re doing and just think? Ponder on that for a moment. Now have a think about where you’d next like to go on holiday. Now have a think about what your perfect job would be and how happy it would make you. Get any decent results? Well you’ve probably just experienced a small daydream! Daydreams help us get through a whole myriad of situations. They can keep us entertained, they can help us think of goals or ambitions, they can fuel creativity, they can give us the motivation we need to make big decisions.
I thought it was fitting to end my poetry series On Dreams by singing the praises of the most underrated type of dream. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing every one of these poems, it has been challenging, fascinating and extremely entertaining, and I may even revisit this theme in the future! I hope that I’ve provided some inspiration andĀ some entertainment! And I thank everybody on every platform who has read, or listened to me reciting these works, and I am very excited to be beginning a new project!
More work coming very soon!
Watch this space, and until next time, may your daydreams, and night dreams beĀ chock full of amazing occurrences, bizarre character behavior, and inspiring moments!
Nick Steel X
On Dreams 10 of 10 – Daydream.
We see so many colourful scenes backlit in grey through thousands of windows, on thousands of days daydreaming of a wider world beyond the UK. āØAnd, thatās ok. āØThe dreams we donāt share when weāre aware weāre not there in the room, but consciously elsewhere are the oneās we build to escape the real nightmare. So anywhere āØelse we can create, weāve all sometimes escaped havenāt we? The image impressed on our brain for the sake of keeping us safe from the mundane and things that we hate. Which one is fake? āØTo live for a world weāve imagined isnāt that insanity? Well if weāre forced to strive for lives we donāt want, excuse me, Iād rather be a happy dreamer than a mere and vague formality. Dream happily.
Fever dreams, oh, where to start with these little menaces!
Well, if you’re anything like me, when you get sick, you get bad dreams. And not the kind of cool or interesting bad dreams I’ve mentioned before, no no. The kind of irritating, infuriating, and frustrating dreams that make you feel lost, uncomfortable and often scared.
My first memories of such dreams were when I was in hospital (for reasons I cannot remember) as a very young child. I could’ve sworn I was being picked up and shaken by an angry stranger at intervals throughout the night, I was also convincedĀ I was stuck in a bush fire (must’ve seen it on a TV show to have imagined such a specific situation as a young British kid), none of it was real, but it all seemed VERY real!
I’ve had a few similar experiences as an adult too, and I wonder if fever dreams are responsible for a number of fairly common strange occurrences, how about…reports of paranormal activity and ghost sightings, or perhaps even making folks believe they’ve been abducted by aliens… it could because they’ve had a very vivid feverish dream and it’s felt entirely real!
Who knows for sure…but one thing I DO know, is that some of the most terrifying and memorable dreams I’ve experienced were ones I’ve had when I had been feeling under the weather! I’d love to know what causes this to happen, and if any kind of serious research has ever happened around this subject!
For now… stay flu free… it’s getting cold out there!
Sunday Night Fever
Oh I see!
Out go the lights,
all tucked in tight
and itās ānighty nightā!
But itās
no rest for you sunshine!
Just a dose of hallucination,
a long old slog of fright!
Haha!! And Iām not askingā¦
butāØhope thatāll be alright!
Well, actually
Iām gonna say no!
you need to leave me, just go.
Iāve been feeling right rough so,
just to let you know
Iāve popped some decongestants,
paracetamol & stuff too,
to see you off, and this cough.
So old pal, donāt hang around and also,
Iāll be drifting off to sleep now, nice and slow.
Are we,getting cheeky?
Oh sunshine, I aināt going nowhere, see.
You think a few pills will hold me?
Notice how you feel a bit queasy?
No, no Iām your guest till sun rise
Iāll be in your head when you close your eyes,
feel that bead of sweat? The nose all leaky?
All me sunshine, and whatās more freakyā¦
youāre talking to a voice without a body.
Iāve got to take a sip
of water get a grip
stop talking to the witty twit,
thatās in my head, making quipsā¦
as nightmares do to lure you,
when youāre feeling sick.
I canāt concentrate, my minds doing flips
body freezing, face burning, sensations split
a thousand dreams vivid and nondescript,
Who was just talking? Iām sinking, in a trip.
Well! Iāve said it before and Iāve stressed
you aināt dying sunshine, youāre blessed!
Iāll be summoning visions in your interest,
places vivid and picturesque,
I can see your protest,
and the phlegm in your chest aināt the best
sensation, but I detest
the insinuation Iām just a throw away villain,
just some germ that you want killing,
and for that, you can sleep, but youāll get no rest.
Half awake,
in a fever fuelled dream state,
between sleep and the long long wait,
my temperature seems to make
dreams that fracture and quake,
rooms and faces that clash and break.
His imposing figure grabs me and shakes.
Heās my bronchitis, heās won this round,
weāll see who ends on higher ground,
Doctor tomorrow, amoxicillin to take.
The recurring dream is an unusual thing indeed! This relatively common phenomenon is often misrepresented in literature and television as being an identical dream experienced, on multiple occasions. In reality, recurring dreams can be specific or non-specific experiences revolving around the same theme. I’ve had a number of these myself, I have a recurring dream where I can barely control my car and crash into other vehicles, bizarrely in these dreams I am not concerned for my (or anyone else’s) safety, I am more upset that I won’t be able to pay for repairs or the increased insurance premium!
I’ve had a number of these myself, I have a recurring dream where I can barely control my car and crash into other vehicles, bizarrely in these dreams I am not concerned for my (or anyone else’s) safety, I am more upset that I won’t be able to pay for repairs or the increased insurance premium! It is believed that recurring dreams can be linked to anxiety, which in context with this particular dream is easy for me to see why! I started having this dream when I was employed in a job I disliked, which happened to have a very long commute!
Stranger though is the recurring dream I used to experience in my teenage years, and the one which this poem is based on. I would dream that I would be walking on my usual route to school, and the details would be incredible, down to the flower beds and front door numbers. A friend would show up (a different friend each time the dream happened), and we’d be having a very honest and frank discussion, then we would experience a blinding flash of light, and see the mushroom cloud of an atomic explosion in the distance. The rest of the dream would be the conversation between myself and the friend, and when the flames would reach us, I’d feel the heat, and wake up immediately. I lost track of the number of times I lived through this nightmare, but it certainly burned itself into my long term memory!
Well, I know I’m not alone when I say that these are amongst my least favourite types of dream. Perhaps sometimes they can even be classified as nightmares, for the sensation they arouse the most in us, is that purest of primal fears…panic!!!
I’m talking about “late” dreams, those dreams we have where we are desperately trying to get somewhere, and cannot due to ever-mounting obstacles placed in our paths. It’s very easy to link these dreams to our conscious moods, and it’s often anxiety that leads to a severe “late” dream. Quite often these dreams can cause left over panic after we wake from them, so despite their despicable nature, they are very much worthy of a mention!
On that note, I hope you all have relaxed, and laid back well scheduled mornings ahead of you!!!
On Dreams 6 of 10 – Late! Late! I canāt be late! I need to leave here by ten past eight! āØJust, brush my teeth first, drink water, quench my thirst. Grab my keysā¦where are they??? I put them right here yesterday?!? āØGot them! Left āem in my pocketā¦ Time is flying past at the speed of a rocket! āØIāve got to leave, get in the car nowā¦ The windows are frozen! Itās not even cold, HOW?! Central locking isnāt working, must be the battery, ok, fine, letās do this the old way, use the damn key. Engine on, heater on, radio on, and the news for the morning. My heart drops, panic rises, reports of a local traffic warning. EIGHT TWENTY now! Iāll never make it! And I forgot to lock the front door!āØSomewhere an alarm is buzzing like a chainsaw! Making my brain sore! Itās, oh sweet relief, just the alarm on my phone, it was just a stupid dream, I shouldāve known. Better check the timeā¦itās ten past eight!!! āØIāve got to leave NOW! I canāt be late!!!
Hello there readers! And Welcome to another installment of the “On Dreams” poetry series.
This one doesn’t need too much explaining. I’m sure we’ve all experienced those wonderful (and also torturous) dreams in which we stuff our faces with all of our favourite foods, with no ill effects (except for the dissatisfaction in waking up and realising you’ve been chewing on the corner of your pillow long enough to cover it in saliva)!
And on that note, I wish you a happy Wednesday!
On Dreams – 5 of 10: It All Tastes Good!
Iām pretty sureā¦ I was, half way through a conversation but forget that my brain has travelled to a new destination far from procrastination Iāve arrived at sensation station!
Iām central now, to what looks like endless tables of nosh! No people, just trifles, chocolates, sausage rolls nothing posh and like a pig at a trough Iām diving in headfirst ravenous.
It all tastes good! Texture doesnāt feel like nature intended… did that pasta feel like chewing fabric or am I demented? Guess itās lucky this dream ended before I could devour the bed spread!
Nick Steel 