Ghosts At My Door - pipTalk Forums

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

0 posted 2001-09-06 10:53 PM

Ghosts At My Door

Sleep
is what I dread most.
That time between closing your eyes
and opening them again,
when your mind is out of control,
dreams are reality,
and you no longer know the difference;
that's when the ghosts come to my door.
They begin as subtle voices
whisperings just beneath sound
rustlings in the darkest corners of my head,
the sense of non-presence, present.

Louder they grow,
becoming speech,
all talking at once,
a continuous babble of languages
vying for attention but unintelligible
in the confusion of so much chatter.
They grow in volume,
getting louder and louder,
screaming now,
Die, Die, Die!

And then the light.
Blinding white.
Non-reflecting.
Shadowless.

Her song starts then,
a slow, rising, beautiful climb up the C-scale,
down,
back up again,
over and over,
until the light fades.

Slowly the voices return,
and the dream begins,
and I'm running,
running , running…
my heart pounds,
I'm gasping for air,
but I can't stop, must never stop running
from that hideous, cold laughter gaining
with every step I take…

I reach a fence,
frantically climb the three strands of barbed wire,
leap from the other side,
gasp in horror as the ground opens,
and the fiery flames of hell reach for my airborne body…

Sleep
is what I dread most.
That time between closing your eyes
and opening them again,
when your mind is out of control,
dreams are reality,
and you no longer know the difference;
that's when the ghosts come to my door.
They begin as subtle voices
whisperings just beneath sound
rustlings in the darkest corners of my head,
the sense of non-presence, present.

w. james beard, jr.
(c) September 2001

[This message has been edited by jwesley (edited 09-06-2001).]

VAS
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-11-16

Posts 7450
Oregon

1 posted 2001-09-06 11:00 PM

jwesley, we needed you and this poem this week at the online class I'm doing...we were writing a poem about different kinds of dreams, one of mine is the 'dreams and aspirations' one I posted tonight. goodness, this was a vivid, powerful piece. quite a read!!!

Marge Tindal

Member Empyrean

since 1999-11-06

Posts 42384
Florida's Foreverly Shores

2 posted 2001-09-06 11:18 PM

JWesley~
My goodness !
Lay off the salsa before bedtime ! !

This one gives me the heebie-jeebies~
That's not a dream it's a SCREAM !
~*Marge*~

~*The pen of the poet never runs out of ink, as long as we breathe.*~
[email protected]

cottage
Member

since 2001-06-21

Posts 138

3 posted 2001-09-07 03:16 AM

wat a haunting read... I've enjoyed it very much.

Cpat Hair

Member Patricius

since 2001-06-05

Posts 11793

4 posted 2001-09-07 08:20 AM

haunting...and something I could relate to...

nicely done... I enjoyed a great deal!!!

jwesley
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-04-30

Posts 7563
Spring, Texas

5 posted 2001-09-07 09:55 AM

VAS - had I known I'd probably have been there...so where ARE these online goodies anyway???  Thank you for the nice comment also.

Marge...Yah, we screamt.  We do it all.  In our dreamts.

Cottage and Cpat.   Haunting...yep, got a point (think maybe my wife saw me "talking" with that checking-out...er, I mean, check-out girl?).

SEA

Moderator

Member Seraphic

since 2000-01-18

Posts 22676
with you

6 posted 2001-09-07 10:24 AM

this is WILD.....
what a scary dream.....

"whisperings just beneath sound"

that is very cool....I liked that

catalinamoon

Member Rara Avis

since 2000-06-03

Posts 9543
The Shores of Alone

7 posted 2001-09-07 12:38 PM

Yikes, I don't think those are very good dreams. I have lots of nightmares too, but the occasional really good one makes up for it. Nice work
Sandra

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.