Best Terrors Poems
Lay your head beside mine if you dare and enter the world of my nightmare. A long hall
before you is lined by many doors, and opening each one exposes terrifying horrors.
Unlock the first and see the cemetery where so many ancestors have been buried.
Unkempt graves covered by thorny vines propel you back to tragedy-filled times. A
second door reveals a room filled with flames where lost souls scream for second
chances in vain. Behind the third door my late husband lies as I emit such mournful
cries. I rush to the fourth door and watch the rerun of a fiancé who drowned while
together we had swum. A fifth door swings open and I see a lonely woman, aged and
forgotten by those who once loved her. There is something so familiar about this forlorn
soul; a glimpse of my own future I behold. Have you the courage to take this journey
with me into the terrors that come in nightly dreams? And if you are willing to behold
such sights, should I see you as a demon or an angel of light? If you choose to lie at my
side, perhaps these dreams will subside. But there are few who are up to this task. Are
you one of the few I must ask.
Night terrors seem so real as they occur, but by morning they may just be a blur.
Perhaps it is my fate to remain, as now, alone, because few lovers will venture into the
unknown -- a misty place where fears and tears collide. What partner would be willing
to share such a frightening ride? A journey through this realm of horrors requires a
spiritual guide. Those who promise to take us “for better or worse” are never truly
prepared to endure such a curse.
How silly for me to fear going to sleep
when I need sleep so much.
The intensity of fearful thoughts
consumes me, and I just can't sleep.
When pure exhaustion overcomes me
I drift off and pray that this night
will be different....will be night terror free.
Free from my terrifying screams that
shake me awake.
That darkness, those in my face other
worldly creatures I can't quite discern
which cause my night terrors, plague me.
My screams leave my throat hoarse, leave
my body trembling, and heart pounding.
Then I lie awake in fitful tossing and turning
until daylight breaks.
I have no conscious fears to reflect upon,
no reasons for my nocturnal fright.
Yet it happens almost every night.
Doctors haven't given me any useful advice.
Meditation, prayers, leaving the lights on
when I sleep have come to no avail.
My bedroom has been, sage smudged,
reiked, incensed and God blessed.
Angel protection seems to work the best.
Yet still these night terrors persist.
Psychoanalysis, and hypnosis hasn't helped.
I feel like the little child who keeps crying wolf,
who will one day scream, then be ignored by
family who have become used to my screams.
As yet I have not met another who suffers
with night terrors but I am searching for a group
to join of kindred souls who comprehend what
I am dealing with, who may also suggest
a way to end these frightful terrors for my sanity.
Until I find a way, I won't give up. I still have faith.
8-8-17
*Note:
Night terrors are a form of sleep disorder in which a person partially awakens from sleep in a state of terror. A sufferer of night terrors experiences an activation of his or her fight-or-flight system.
Night terrors usually occur during the deepest stage of sleep, which is typically the first half of the sleep cycle. Night terrors are not nightmares, which are a form of dreaming. Because the person may still be partially asleep during a night terror, they can be inconsolable and unaware of their surroundings. They may have no memory of the episode when they awaken.
Paralyzed
Silenced
Stalked
Invaded
All of this
My mind
Created
(TO THE VICTIMS OF WAR IN MY NATIVE
CAMEROON AND IN NORTHERN NIGERIA)
Giants
Have filled
The FAR North
Sweeping
Bloodbathing
With sophisticated
Heavy weapons
Connected on a
Barren land
Communicating
As from satellites,
Techniques and
Outfits of
The expedition
They got THERE
Thundering,
Murdering,
Raping, and
Reaping
The scarce
Bank notes kept aside
To launch our economy
here.
The giants are
Putting up stubborn
Resistance ready
To dismantle,
Horrify, and
Offer pretexts
For erecting another
Benghazi or Mali,
Somalia or
The Sudans:
Growing poverty
Exile
On the desert
Migrations
Corruption
Legislations
Segregations
Falling soldiers
Suspecting the
Innocents
Blackmailing
The weak.
Where are our
White hope of
The Opposition
And all the experts
On geopolitics?
Tell us whose war
Is it?
I slumber, I sleep, so deep and oh so long
I feel a force pulling me down, down, something's wrong.
Its dark, as dark as pitch but strangely I still can see,
shadows pass, I'm scared, the faint light calls to me.
I'm being pursued and I know not by who or why.
Always black, oblique surrounds. GET AWAY, I must try.
Feeling the rush of panic, adrenalin keeps me going,
breathing getting quicker, WAKE UP, back to the knowing.
Demons calling out to me, they call through children's eyes.
I resist their cackle, but yet am drawn, knowing its not wise.
Then suddenly my leg is grabbed, I begin to kick and scream,
I'm out of breath, all out of moves, please wake up from this dream.
The die is not cast until you sleep of what your dream will tell.
A friendly dream, or nightmare taking you to the pit of hell.
Amazing unspeakable things the mind can conjure up
Its not until sleep prevails that you drink the bitter cup.
As night befalls you lie in bed, to sleep you do succumb
The talisman, the hooded feind all beckon you as one.
Their craft take you over misty dreams but you are unaware
Then suddenly the hood falls free- Welcome to your nightmare.
Restless sleep triggers delusional dreams,
that your beleaguered brain surrenders to.
And from night terrors, you awake to screams
for it feels so real; you think it's true
that spectral shadows are pursuing you;
and powerless, there's nothing you can do.
Though safe in bed, you feel you're in peril,
unable to dispel feelings of dread.
It's like finding your dog has gone feral,
and you're not sure if it's alive or dead;
while it chases you, growling, to be fed,
your feet tangled in the sheets of your bed.
Anxiety rises, reaching its peak,
while your heart mercilessly pounds your chest.
You feel disorientated and weak;
imprisoned in a nightmare you detest,
unable to wake, though you try your best;
panic, ensuring that you'll get no rest.
Scary night terrors often make you cry,
for you genuinely think you will die.
i never had night terrors,
but i know a guy that did.
he used to go outside at night
and scream that the elephants
were coming.
now the elephants were bigger than me.
this i knew, and it was that that i felt
when i was awoken, and realized what he was saying.
he knew what he was saying.
one night it was the Nazis.
he was twelve years old,
and the year was 1989.
but it was the original men
from the short filmstrips
we watched in library the year before.
those were the nights when the tv
went off the air.
after a few late shows and movies,
the national anthem was played
and life became surreal enough to dream.
i remember the drip of the kitchen sink
as if it were yesterday.
i would try to wait till the dripping
became in time with the clock on the wall.
my unconscious would hypnotize me
that way, i could dream of things that were
too vague....and when i awoke to hear him
out on my lawn in his stone age pajamas,
shouting that the elephants were still coming...
i would always remember that though i couldn't see them,
they were bigger than me.
THE BOOGEYMAN WILL GET YOU-LOOK OUT!!
They have said that to me ever since I was a wee boy
Lurking under the sheets,in the closet,behind one's back
Especially at night when we are susceptible to the vivid
imaginations of our peers' taunting ravings of Unmentionable
crawlers of the dark and fright
I would not sleep with the closet door half open to fill these
frightened pupils of what may hide behind
It would scare me out of my adolescent mind,to know that something
SINISTER would come from the shadows and SCARE me to death from behind
Every little boy or girl would be so sensitive to the Boogeymen stories that their
elders or friends would tell them,how green and deathly evil their eyes can be
when they look back at you.Is it purely imagination or something of a twisted and
macabre sense of humor that our brothers and sisters would like to throw back
at us..for kicks and thrills,Halloween night terrors of unimaginable thrills
When I was younger,the Man with a Forever Grin,would like to ridicule and
terrorize me with his Devil-may-bite smile and assistant ghosties who would play
along for the HELL of it.
I may be a grown man now,my friend,but whenever I pop a HALLOWEEN dvd in
my player,the mind cannot help but recollect the pictures of Night Terrors that
forever go bump in the night where I live..
I hope the same can be said of those same Vile screamers that terrorize us in
the first place..give them a taste of their own WICKED medicine
Why can’t I sleep, when will this end, this up all nights, becoming a trend, I can’t switch off, my head is full, my lights are out, my room is dull, there’s not much noise, my comfy bed, these nasty voices, inside my head, they never shut up, they never stop talking, if feel like I’m watched, there’s somebody stalking, where can it be, what was just said, I would be better, not living just dead, please make it stop, it’s making me ill, I’ve been taking my little pill, why doesn’t it work, I’m worn out for sure, my doctor was trusted, to give me the cure, is this the way it’s got be, will I never ever be free, one things for sure, one thing that’s real, this wasn’t really part of the deal, I just want to sleep, I want to switch off, why am I scared, why am I soft, night time terrors, and demons and voices, awake or asleep, surely I have the choices, the only thing I’m starting to see, is that these same horrors keep haunting me.
In the pitch darkness of the night
Where nightmares come to fright and haunt
I lie awake my heart in flight
In the pitch darkness of the night
Praying, pleading, for morning light
When fearsome terrors cease to taunt
In the pitch darkness of the night
Where nightmares come to fright and haunt
The dishes in the sink rattle loudly
The wind howling like the grey wolf
The floors creaking when no one's there
The lights begin to flicker
The shadows move about
Shivers run through me
Someone's watching
The door cracks
Haunted
Night
Used and abused
Lies and misused
I'm sick of the person I've become
So sick of all of the wrong that I have done
Change is something
I strive for everyday
But it's so hard
The abuse keeps the pain away
So I stay at bay to keep the nightmares away
The demons only come out at night
They surround me
they give me a fright
lost for days
My mind twisted in a haze
I don't know what to say
don't know what to do
I just can't seem to get over you
Night Terrors
It sits hiding in the deep recesses of the mind, waiting in the dark for the moment when it can attack. Riding upon the winged beasts of the night, bringing horrors untold to those unaware of their intent. Asleep and unable to defend one’s self, night terrors attack.
Seeking the young, the battered, the old, and the week, they breed and spread evil upon the world of the sleeping. Feeding upon the screams in the minds of the unwary, these demons of the mind grow to consume all that is peaceful and serene. Savage and without mercy they tear apart all semblance of peace, in the dreams of there sleeping victims.
Riding the waves of the seas of our dreams as they are turned into unspeakable horrors of the mind, the dreamer finds themselves at the bottom of the sea of sleep. With visions and horrors beyond telling all that is innocent and pure in the mind is beyond them, as the screams in the night feed the horror that torments their sleep.
Rest is futile as they thrash trying to throw off the demons that haunt their sleep never peaceful the night a thing of disembodied torment. They seek the death of sleep without dreams or flights of fancy, no children playing, no flowers blooming just the deep, dark, black, of a death like state.
Writhing in the agony of the images that haunt them, the dreamers are unable to free themselves from the terror that taunts, when freedom is only an awakening away.
By
Josehf Lloyd Murchison
if i learnt one thing from my dream last night ~ never pick up small spiders
By
David Kavanagh
NIGHT TERRORS
When distant daylight is spent and spilled,
My lamp alone lights the curtained darkness
Of unseen fear, which has always filled
The weary black pit yawning endless
Into the night; and all the unknown
Terrors of the dreamworld
Conspire to extinguish my lamp lone
When the smothering curtain is unfurled.
Oh, how the dawn moves on leaden feet
To reach far into the shaded recess.
Oh, let it make haste to meet
My sleepless darkness with succor and nearness.