Sunday, May 16, 2010

Reading, Dreams, and Poetry

Dear Mom,

I don’t remember you ever reading, but you did crossword puzzles. To me, that’s harder.

Last night before I went to sleep I finished Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis by Catherine Rankovic. Excellent book. I had no idea we’re so fortunate to have so many writers from St. Louis. My reading list just got longer.

I also listened to Sightlines by Janet Riehl. It touches your heart in so many ways, and what a beautiful tribute to her family.

Then I read a chapter from Stranger by the River by Paul Twitchell.

I knew when I went to sleep, traveling to other places, writing—particularly poetry—would surface. And sure enough as I entered back into semi-consciousness, here’s what I heard:

Pounding head!
I stay wrapped in the covers.
My bladder demands more attention—
slither out of bed,
drag my body,
feet shuffling like my Parkinson’s Dad,
back and hip hurt too,
shoulder has a kink,
eyes less than a slit.
This cleanse gives you energy?
Hurry up coffee maker!

4 comments:

  1. OMG Lynn, this is terrific. Your writing is taking a new direction and I love this kind of prose poetry. Great stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved this, too, Lynn! It's a wonder you didn't dream 10 different kinds of dreams with the diversity of your reading/listening before sleep! And wow...aches and pains and kinks? Dang! What's happening to us?? We're too young for these things to happen!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Lynn, I agree with the ladies. Loving it.

    Kelly L. Stone wrote "THINKING WRITE: The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind" about using the subconscious mind to enhance our writing potential. I attended her workshop at the Red Clay Conference last fall (Georgia Writers' Association) and it was super interesting. She talked about that semi-sleep state as being particularly prolific. Thomas Edison would deliberately try to fall asleep because he solved invention dilemmas in that state of consciousness. Cool, huh? And you just proved her point! Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you gals - I always love when things like that come through. Not that it's all that great, but...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I don't always comment back, but I do appreciate it.