Friday, April 18, 2008

There's a Closet in my Nightmare -- a poem about nightmares/a nightmare poem

THERE’S A CLOSET IN MY NIGHTMARE
By
Gregory K.

There’s a closet in my nightmare
With a door that’s open wide.
It gives a perfect view of all the scary things inside.

My hangs-up hang on hangers.
Anxious thoughts dart left and right.
A case of nerves up on a shelf grows bigger every night.

My worries clump in giant groups.
Each fear sits all alone.
Lurking in dark corners is the scary, great unknown.

I used to try to stay awake –
I’d play or read a book.
I didn’t want to fall asleep and have to take a look.

Still, every night my eyes would shut.
I’d drift to sleep and then…
My mind would soon be staring in that closet once again.

But then one night I realized
I could choose to close the door….
Now that closet in my nightmare just can’t scare me anymore.


The Poetry Friday roundup is over at the Well-Read Child this week. Meanwhile, I'm posting an original poem each day in April in celebration of National Poetry Month. Links to this and other poems here on GottaBook (and I post all year round, because poetry is NOT just for April!) are collected over on the right of the blog under the headline "The Poems".

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8 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

This is especially charming because I was obsessive about closing my closet door when I was a kid -- because I really was terrified of it gaping open in the dark... and now living in the UK I *have to* leave the closet open or else it grows mold!! Nightmares indeed!

I really love that the 'hang-ups' are all on hangers, and that each fear sits alone. This is really great.

Anonymous said...

I love it! There's a nightmare in MY closet, truth be told, and the door won't always latch properly.

Thanks for making me smile today.

Anonymous said...

Hi cousin Greg,

I replied to your blog a few days ago, but I think I never properly joined the Google Group thing, so it bounced back. I read the daily poems to the girls every morning while they are getting ready for school. So far, the Bubble wrap and the Freight Train poems have been the favorites, but this morning's poem was great - I sent it to Sam.

Keep 'em coming!

xoxo
Linda

Sarah Stevenson said...

I really like this one, Greg. Even to this day I don't care for leaving my closet door open when I'm trying to get to sleep...hang-ups on hangers indeed!

Greg Pincus said...

Thanks, y'all. And a good time to note that for subscribers to the poetry list, you can't reply directly to the list, but actually have to type my address into a new email to reach me. Which, of course, all are encouraged to do!

Anonymous said...

I definitely close the closet doors at night because we all know that closet monsters are too weak to open them! I think I need to clean out a closet and specify it as the "problem" closet and we can store all of ours there while we sleep well at night. :)

Rita said...

I love this so much! I want to draw the closet in the nightmare . . . within a closet, within a closet, and with oozy auras and shadows. Twilight zones, hall light shadows; that terrible, no-good, very bad shade of blue . . .

MotherReader said...

Ah, if only I could close the closet doors - both literally and figuratively. I like this poem. It speaks to me.