Sometimes words come to me quickly, like they’re sifting out of a pool of wondrous words, and all I need do is pick up a pen or keyboard and they come out, like mad things. This poem was one such thing that seemed to just flow like the waters I describe.

It’s been a tough few months for us all. In fact, almost a year has gone by as we have been living with the results of a pandemic. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s still a ways off yet. On the horizon, but we need to walk the same darkened path of restrictions and lockdowns and the virus mutating over and over again. It’s frustrating and it’s hard, but we’ll get through it. I know we will.

What helps me is reading books, but even then I find the fantasy worlds can get a bit too much and I need the real world again. It seems I cannot live in either or, but tend to live in both, and that’s the premise of my poem this week. I hope you like it, and I’d be curious to know if others have ways of coping with the lockdowns and restrictions.

Dwelling Places

There’s a place I’ve been
Only in my dreams
It plays havoc on my mind
It’s breaking through the seams

It’s a world of fantasy
In this place I’ve dwelled
While sleeping or in a book
That my hand has held

I dip my toes into
The waters of this realm
But I’m careful to step back
For the fear of overwhelm

I’ve slipped too far before
Dove right into the ocean
It’s taken me too far
In a rollercoaster of motion

Now I see the realm ahead
And reality at my feet
I dwell in both worlds
Stuck fast to both beats

When a world gets too much
I take to another
But be careful of the undertow
For it doth smother

We cannot live forever in one
As each give us a hand
To thrive and drive us mad
So here I stay upon the sands.