Poem Art Project

by motherblue212

Dreaming

My dream poem (as promised from last week) followed by a request.

THE DREAM POEM

A traveller sat down on my solitary dream bench and told me this story. I am not quite sure where these words came from, but I woke up on my birthday morning with this poem in my head.

_____________

unfinished business

i dont want to turn 40 one day.

there are checks to cash and bills to pay.

i need to catch a plane today.

i need to find a lover to play.

and then the rhyming stopped

i knew i should have left this shore ages ago.

what i needed was never here,

it was out there,

somewhere in berlin.

in the night,

with rocking hips and sailing ships,

and in the oohs and ahs of peircing midnights and mountains of regrets,

that at the time seemed like a good idea.

i need a voice to make a movement,

the movement i sidestepped,

the movement i stood still for.

i need to seize now, the voices are quieting.

it is amazing how your voice have moved the words,

the words inside i never could pronounce.

i need you to take me to chelsea, to lodger, to low,

you need a janitor a maid and a housekeeper.

i need to take myself.

i am drawn to your dark place, your weird space,

your lies, your backhanded neglect,

your gravelly voice,

your unfiltered cigarettes

are we always all born restless?

or is it only me?

i spent 10,000 days alone,

spent 10 years getting famous,

10 years getting rich,

then 10 years getting forgotten (by the time i’m 66)

will i get what i need by the time i’m 66?…

_____________

It was a very weird, very visceral dream. He was a silhouetted traveler adorned in a fedora and trench coat. His outline looked like the love child of William Burroughs and Leonard Cohen. He smelled of lucky strikes. He told me this “story.”

THE REQUEST: A CALL FOR ARTISTS

This poem isn’t Shakespeare or some brilliant lost beat poem, but my head was whispering to me that day so I thought a response was warranted. To that end, I began to realize that it might be kind of cool to use this dream poem in a type of artistic exercise, or as some sort of art collaborative. I am reaching out to the masses to find a way to illustrate these random words in a way that makes sense using film, dance, music, illustrations, comics, graphics, design, etc. in order to make a fantastic blog/Flickr/etc. online art show. Here is where you come in. Read the poem, examine the words, come up with something brilliant or brilliantly mediocre. Deadline for submission is October 9, 2011. Send me a link to your work in the comment section of this blog post (whether it be through Flickr, Vimeo or what have you) and I will post and promote your works in an online gallery on or shortly after the deadline.

I look forward to seeing your dreams.

Awake