Best Nightmare Poems
A child of four suffers recurring dreams,
disturbing parents and siblings with screams.
When she awoke, always sore in one knee;
next to a birthmark, it throbbed painfully.
Night after night she feared going to bed.
What caused these nightmares that raged in her head?
Even when grown, the torment persisted,
so a therapist’s aid she enlisted.
“Hypnosis,” said he, “might offer some clues.
Why not try it? You’ve just bad dreams to lose.”
Once under, he guided her to a room --
here people’s lifetimes in books were entombed.
“Find one that is yours,” her counselor said.
Quickly she did, but before it was read,
she felt an ache, saw just a faint title.
The words, she thought, said “Alister Bridle.”
The hypnotic trance now suddenly broke;
puzzling questions “Mr. Bridle” evoked.
For many years she thought that was her name;
perhaps a past life had been filled with pain.
Who was this man? She simply had to know!
Seasons passed, summer suns made way for snow.
In Florida now, 1998,
she thought all the nightmares she had escaped.
But strange dreams always catch us by surprise --
when the lights grow dim, our minds fantasize.
Cloaked in velvet, she left her parents’ farm,
stealing away on a late autumn morn’.
To meet her love, she climbed on the carriage,
knowing her folks would forbid their marriage.
Warm-hued leaves carpeted the hillside road,
and her pulse beat fast; she’d soon join her beau.
She thought only of him; joy cast its smile,
but that’s when he called, “Alice, the bridle!”
The leather band broke and wrapped ‘round her knee.
To the ground she was pulled; her horse ran free.
She met death, but past-life dreams recycle,
and she’d never been “Alister Bridle.”
“I don't paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.”
Frida Kahlo“
In the absence of love,
a childhood is shaped by the stars,
but when black smoke is the only impression in the light,
sorrows peel in soundless motions - slow burning.
When fate is sealed with a goodbye,
in an 'all I never asked for' moment,
the weight of fear appears as a niggling nightmare
in our personal book of dreams,
so we drift into an abyss of discarded destinies -
untamed we roam into a wildfire of lost souls.
I'm a silent knight unable
to suppress this wandering muse,
so I portray my darkness through rosewater ink,
which flows like a scarlet oasis of waterfalls,
merging into sapphire oceans of poetic heartbeats.
I blame my past for this saviour complex,
but battling demons has become my beautiful undoing.
Ugliness of sugar coated words,
hidden behind metaphorical daggers,
has engraved scars with unhealed wounds,
leading me upon a path resenting sealed emotions.
When nostalgic rain sings in sea shell whispers,
I wish I could hold the sun in my arms,
to stop me from pouring
in melancholic bleeding moonlight,
but my beloved's eyes resemble dandelion reveries,
reminding me of a fragrant bouquet of memories,
pleading to personify her in
petrichor perfumed poems.
Her scent resurrects my muse to life..
She always says:
"Never mind the moon, it's only a reminder of forgotten midnight promises."
How her heart is an island where my waves will eternally kiss her shores.
A sanctuary for my inner child to forever build sandcastles."
My destiny leads to the end of a rainbow,
which rests upon the ivory sands of her treasure -
where internal flames become calm.
Love me or hate me
few people can take me
plain, unadulterated, true to myself
their compulsive need to gussy me up
or completely disguise me
gives me nightmares...
Horrible- horrible!
The worst is where
they try to make me
Savory.
Suffocated in sauces, sweet relish
and pickled beets
garnished with green olives
and fussy-cut vienna sausages
all dancing in fancy chorus lines
on top of me
Oh No! I can't take it...
It just can't be!
What are they thinking?!
I awake with a snug sensation
as something warmish
drapes and
drizzles
down my back
AAAAAHHH!
Caramel sauce-
Thank God!
In my grandpa’s field I stand midst rows of grain
whose gray-green blades stir softly in the moaning wind.
A night chill permeates my skin.
I look down at my arms and legs and realize
I’m a little girl again!
How did I get here? Why am I now standing here in the dark of night?
Far ahead of me, I see the old worn farmhouse.
Moon, big and golden, seems to have left the sky.
It’s reappeared at the window of my grandparent’s old house,
where it glows with a mesmerizing light eerily beckoning me.
I stand transfixed, not knowing what to do.
Is this a dream? It has to be!
Grandma sold that house when grandpa died.
I’d seen it one more time remodeled and repainted
and with another owner’s name.
The house I’m seeing now is the old one from my childhood.
Many things from long ago are coming to my mind:
The fields where my sisters and I frolicked in the summers;
the long dirt lane we skipped happily along;
the berry bushes along many pathways we discovered;
the hollyhocks we learned how to make cute dollies from.
It was daylight when I knew the farm back then. Sun was high in the sky.
Now I’m only seeing the eerie glow emanating from grandpa’s house. . .
I awaken to the darkness of a winter morning’s gloom,
vaguely remembering a vanished moon
which turned up on the face of my grandparents’ old farmhouse
as if to beckon me back to my childhood.
But somehow I knew (even while asleep)
that to near that house and then to go inside it
would not be the stuff of happy dreams.
There was a reason for the coldness of the night, the moaning of the wind.
The summer days have fled. Between the nightmare and the dream,
subconsciously I knew
you simply cannot go home again.
I was walking home one cold winter's night
On a country lane that was very dark
Odd feeling I had something wasn't right
Then behind me heard a growl and a bark.
I turned around but nothing could I see
T'was the midnight hour no one was about
My mind I thought is playing tricks on me
Then I heard it, a loud scream and a shout.
I froze on the spot overcome with fear
Thought I'd keel over from a heart attack
Loud shouting again it was getting near
I started running and didn't look back.
Then before me a dog with eyes bright red
I woke and vowed no more cheese before bed.
Written 28th April 2019
For Halloween fright poetry contest.
Sponsored by Carolyn Devonshire.
not entered in a contest
"There is no more dangerous menace to civilization
than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men."
~ Ludwig von Mises
Presidential candidates are men of the same unfit kiN
Only one thing they are after ~ the votes of you and I
Left wing or the right; it's a catastrophe in the makinG
Its leadership offered, but it's just their word of moutH
They've made promises that neither of them has kepT
I make no distinction between a donkey or pachyderM
Curmudgeons are they, past prime. One with dementiA
And the other a felon with insufferable moral behavioR
Lordy, what dismal choices when America goes to votE
Nightmare Truths
She hides the truth in nightmare screams,
Refusing to voice fevered dreams,
As moon bent shadows climb the wall,
To bring more demons to her hall.
Those who know her will see no tears,
She locks them away—shows no fears,
Fights her scars in silence alone,
Growing harder her heart of stone.
my garden is dying
wilted and grey
fading
like a dark cloud
after the rain
heavy
it pulls me under
the earth is so cold
nightmare
in the moonlight
I am transformed
painful
fear is blinding
before I let go
falling
down a black hole
into my soul
empty
floating in space
unable to breathe
alone
until the bright light
carries me home
awake
From Empty Pages: The Poetry of Silence
Available on Amazon
______________________
Sometimes I feel like i wanna die
I'm gettin tired of living and dats no lie
So go get a casket, some flowers, and a shovel
So I can go to hell and come face to face with the devil
I'm going to tell him he's a coward to his face
Then tell him move aside so I can take his place
And if he tries to swing, I'll break his window
Then send 64 at him like I'm playing Nintendo
Or better yet send me up to the skies
So I can see the Lord with my own eyes
See if angels really fly with wings
And if they do I'll get a pair of those things
Maybe I can see my firends John and Tashawn
Reminisce about playing football on the school lawn
And I'll go talk to my aunt Te-Te
To ask her where she put that Christmas CD
I'm no longer alive in body, I'm just a spirit
I'm calling peoples names but I doubt that they can hear it
I'm merely a body of air wandering the earth
I'll never have sex again, and I can't pretend that it don't hurt
They say money can't come with you when you die
I tried to bring it anyway but it wasn't worth the try
There isn't anything up there you can buy
There are no cars, no problem, I can just...glide
Or just fly so opposite of low
There is no better feeling than that you know
I notice that I never ever ever get sleepy
I can't get hurt, so you can't stab or shoot me
Blessed with the ability to walk through bodies
Went through a fat man and I saw beer and salami
Went through a girl who was pregnant with a baby
She had crack and coke in her system, shame on that lady
Then I see a boy who looks like my reflection
The only way to describe his look is perfection
Just before I can say "wait"
That is when I awake.......
Standing alone in the night
Dark all around
Something doesn't seem quite right
I hear a sound
Like a werewolf howl
Coming from all around
And the noise of an owl
Piercing red eyes appear
Lightning strikes from the sky
Death is seeming rather near
And I don't want to die
Am I dreaming?
I hope I'm dreaming?
Nightmare
Confronting everything that I fear
Nightmare
The seeming reality of everything I see and hear
Down into the ground I fall
Deep into the dark
Evil says my name, I hear it call
The devil's made his mark
I run, through the endless cave
Stumbling through to find there's no way out
Everything is what I've gave
I've given up, all I want to do is scream and shout
Nightmare!
This is everything I fear
Nightmare!
I think the end is coming near
I hope I'm dreaming
I wish I was dreaming
But I know this is my fate
Lucifer, he can't wait
To take my soul away
There's nothing more I can do or say
Nightmare!
Losing everything I ever cared for
Nightmare!
Losing myself even more
Nightmare!
Nightmare!
Nightmare!
What I never want
Nightmare!
My mind is does haunt
It don't care
What I fear
Cause with it, it grows
I'm hating everything it knows
I wish it wasn't real
Everything I see and feel
But it's true
And just like a
Nightmare!
In the morning while his faith is weak
one when the moon has gone, he declares
upon the rising of the perpetual sun
in the safety of the light
at this time, he still loves the best
this place, of birdsong surely blest.
His need to wander the balmy moor
turn his life around, and unwind
if only to feel life’s reflection
of an era, a youth and life of faith
in happiness, sadness or pain
which whatever plagues him this day.
Everyday, he caresses the rugged cross
that still hangs around his neck,
one that consoled him along many a fiery road
deep in mud and bodies along the trench,
where once, he had fought
the good fight for lasting peace.
Yet still! So many questions
locked within an enquiring mind,
that refuse to languish on meaningful lips
while here now so much strife
so much hate, so much fear,
so, the dream has no reason to end.
One tries so hard to lose it in maturity,
but age has now saturated
and every night, the search goes on
within this onward human metamorphosis,
where before many have ridden life’s carousel,
waiting for the ultimate time to step off.
Yet when that time befalls him
either in sheer exuberance,
or shadows deep, he’ll need all his
strength and endurance, to guide
him over ill at ease, prejudiced waters,
to the promise land!
© Harry J Horsman 2022
I dreamt my mother mourned a broken doll,
porcelain, sad brown eyes, and five feet tall.
Entombed it in the finest place she could,
a cottage encircled by sunlit wood.
She danced a silent waltz with it, keening,
encouraging life in the wretched thing.
And it mended as she was worn away.
She did not hear when warned of her decay.
I was left a pristine porcelain doll,
and a broken mother in its enthrall.
Recently, my ears have heard
Some news that sounds quite absurd
My eyes can’t believe what they have seen
Is this for real, an outright global panic
Regarding the Coronavirus COVID 19
An epidemic that has turned pandemic
Has it been proved to be certain
That this is not a world government gimmick
I may be in serious denial when it
Comes to this coronavirus microbe
But it’s only because this is my worse nightmare
I am such an enormous compulsive germaphobe
Can’t even engage in my usual weekend shoppin’
Friends messaging all early saying, you better get to coppin’
But why rush, it’s my day off I’m home chillin’
Listening to my music cleanin’ and rockin’
They type back in all caps, EVERYTHING'S GOING FAST
I get to the store and of course it was too late
All the water and toilet paper scarce
In such a remarkably short time span
At least they still have disinfectant
Wait, why is Human Coronavirus
Listed on the Lysol can
Well, well, what do you know, it has began
Definitely have to stock up on some gloves and a mask
And if I’m going be under some kind of lockdown
Do I dare google where to buy a wine cask
Possibility of containment, no bueno
Too think, people been trying to warn us for years
I’m so mad I ignored the signs
Remained knowledgeable but yet comatose
I never thought I would live to see
The day where the world gets attacked by Thanos
Drink your herbal teas and keep up your immunity
You might want to also grab a zinc dose
I would hate for me or you to get a positive
Coronavirus COVID 19 diagnose
SUFFER!
I am not afraid of you, Nobody
LEAVE HIM ALONE!
You are afraid of what I’ll do to him. . .
Nobody. . .stop
He’s everything
The only
I love you
LIES
Croaking, splitting
Gnashing, spitting
How am I still alive?
Watch him cry. . .WATCH HIM DIE. . .
Give him up and leave us to agony
Agony. . .
Keep him alive and I will eventually die
Blink – One, two, three four
There’s no escape
GIVE HIM MORE!
Shrieking, creeping
Aching, LAUGHING
Nobody likes me
Wake me up—I’M BURNING UP!
And the killer’s left to guide me
TURN AROUND. . .LOOK BEHIND YOU!
Her faceless, raw, noseless features right in my face
Crawling nearer and nearer
YOU’VE KILLED THEM ALL
SO NOW THEY CAN DESTROY ME!
ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE NOBODY NOW?
I am nobody—I am empty
YOU LEFT ME NOTHING
AND GAVE ME ENEMIES!!!
DEMONS! DEMONS!! DEMONS!!! DEMONS!!!!
GET OUT OF THEM!!!!!
Wake me from this Nightmare of Reality
Nobody says you’re staying forever
UNTIL YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO WAKE
DEMONS!!!! DEMONS!!!!! DEMONS!!!!!!
I smell them. . .I feel them. . .I taste them
UNTIL YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO WAKE
Demons! Fiends!
I hear them. . .
UNTIL YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO WAKE
WHY!!!!!?
ANSWER ME!!
KUT ME! GRIND ME!
END ME!!!!!
She has waken from this nightmare
. . .
Nobody will miss her
Stuck again in this recurring dream,
where I can't open my eyes;
I scream and there's no sound at all,
but inside I hear the cries.
I'm pushed off of a precipice,
and I watch myself fade away;
I slip further into blackness,
all I can do is pray.
I never hit the bottom,
knowing if I do I'll surely die;
I hear the laughter but no ones there,
my mind can't reason why.
I'm barely holding on to sanity,
and can't tell what's lies or real;
I'm locked so deep within this hell,
where I'm just to numb to feel.
So now I start to wonder,
if perhaps I'm really dead;
And just as that fear grips my soul,
I bolt upright in my bed.
A puddle of sweat surrounds me,
I get up and go about my day;
But dread the next time I lay me down,
and my nightmare comes to play.