dream time

for OT's contest

My dad wanders in and out of my dreams.

The conversations are better than I ever remember.

He says stuff to me now.

 

Apparently being dead does bring wisdom.

We were watching a flood, him and me.

Up home.

Must have been astral travel cause I don't know

how I could have got there.

 

Well, anyway, we were watching the water storm through the yard and the street and the middle of the house.

And I could feel my insides aching to mourn for all the things that I watched float away.

He grinned.

And said "let it go, it's just stuff."

And I ducked my head and wiped away the tears and wondered again

how he got so smart.

Reviews

[Kerry O'Connor]

"Apparently being dead does bring wisdom."

That may just be the line of the day, Emily. Your words found such purchase in my mind, since my dead also visit me in my dreams more often than I like, leaving me with the feeling I've left something undone..

[lei]

beautiful piece.. to let go doesn't mean to forget because no matter how long they are gone their memories stays.. in our dreams!

[Robin]

astral travel on a poetic ray of light

let it go , some of the wisest words placed together

[Chris]

this took me places... and that is what poetry does...

[theludus]

yes emily. it is a lovely poem, the way you handled it and at the end, it's like when you watch a particularly good bit in a movie or when you do something particularly nice for someone, or when someone particularly nice

does something for you.
& your eyes tear up.

& you wish that

they wouldn't.

it's lovely.

db.

[Rev. LeRoy James]

Impressive indeed! This does remind me of the Australian aboriginal "Dreamtime", where all of life's answers can be discovered. I like the tie in with the flood and tears, nicely done. A wonderful tribute to paternal memories, thanks for sharing and keep that ink flowing freely!!

[Umar Hassan]

A most profound sentiment is wonderfully, in the true sense, rendered with, "The conversations are better than I ever remember." This is like a gateway for our imaginations, at least those of us who have had fathers in our lives. When I've written poems found in dreams, I never edit them. However, if you do... may I suggest We were watching a flood, he and I? I don't know whether you intended but the line beginning the last stanza literally takes the reader's breath away being so long which I think is the right sense for the scene you've (re)created. What if the last stanza were dense like a paragraph? You know, the jumble chaos of a flood? Just thinking out loud...

[zig]

this reminds me of my grandfather, ten years now and i still get choked up thinking about him. he could just say 3 or 4 words, and it would feel like being hit by a cememt truck. wisemen are like that i guess. enjoyed reading this emily.

zig

[Greg Skura]

Wow Emily! what a profound statement, nice analogy of non attachment :)

[lostboy]

your father is always your father..your life is always your life..your dreams sometimes change.