Skip to main content

Poetry Friday -A Weird Dream



I quite consciously went looking for fun this week. It is important to let humour reach you, particularly in times of challenge. A necessary diversion. A place to get lost for a short while, before returning to the other world- the real world.

So, I am sharing a poem about a dream I may or may not have had after eating way too much at a party once. 

The poem was nestling in my current notebook. I wrote it back in late January. Hope you like it. 

A Weird Dream

I had a weird dream last night
Cute boy having stomach ache | Premium VectorIt is still inside my head
Visions strange and curious
Are filling me with dread

Lions lounged beside a lake
A small rat squatted on a birthday cake
I gazed up at a tartan sky
As a numbat chomped on a blackbird pie

A llama in a leotard
Cartwheeled down the street
While possums danced in a conga line
With gumboots on their feet

Two young girls with barbed wire hair
Threw fairydust into the air
While high in a tree an elephant sat
Singing songs to a mouse in a bowler hat

Small round men
In polka dot pants
Spun high in the air
Then proceeded to dance

Such strange visions
And I think I know why
It might have been
My three helpings of pie

Those five cream buns
And a large cherry tart
A mountain of lollies
-It all played a part

A litre of soft drink
A packet of Smarties
-This is what happens
At kid's birthday parties.

Alan j Wright

Kids' baking recipes | BBC Good Food

Comments

  1. Love it! thanks for making me smile. Lots of whimsy here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Smiling is good Sally. Glad to have brought it on.

      Delete
  2. The smiles are much appreciated with this delightful, nonsensical poem!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure Kay. Humour is essential in these difficult days to help us maintain a balance. Keep smiling.

      Delete
  3. Sounds like quite the party! But where's the ice cream? You can't have a birthday party without ice cream. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was ice-cream Michelle - in the original version, but it melted, so I left it out.

      Delete
  4. Now that's a party I want to be at! Thanks for the invitation!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure Christie. Constraint is advised due to possible weird dream effects...

      Delete
  5. I love the llama in a leotard! And when the poem got to the list of things you ate, I was laughing out loud.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good for you! Pleased the visuals were strong. Keep laughing, its good for your health.

      Delete
  6. I had weird dreams last night, too! ...but not THAT weird!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Write it down Mary Lee. Write it down. It could be the beginning of something quite memorable.

      Delete
  7. How delightfully wonderful, loved the "fairydust" being flung "into the air. Thanks for the diversion, reminds me a bit of Ogden Nash, and oh would this be fun to illustrate, thanks Alan!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hadn't thought about the illustrations, but I have a friend who is an accomplished illustrator who would have lots of fun with this, now that you mention it. Glad you found a momentary diversion in my words Michelle.

      Delete
  8. Giggle! I think that I have had dreams affected by food before too, now that I think of it. Thank you for turning our faces toward the light. We need humor now. Gratitude and health to you. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sure food induced dreams are a common experience Amy, and as you say, we all need some humour right now.

      Delete
  9. Fun poem! I think my teeth hurt just reading it! Thanks for the smiles. : )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unintended consequences Bridget. A bit of mix of responses there with aching teeth and smiles. Poetry can be like that, cant it?

      Delete
  10. It is funny how we think certain foods make us have weird dreams. My husbands swears by watermelon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe that's why I'm not a big fan of watermelon Margaret. Is it the seeds?

      Delete
  11. Thanks for deliberately sending some fun our way. I appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm pleased to have redirected matters in the direction of fun and frivolity.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

  This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully  @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant.  A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...