The Shape of Truth
At night I live in different houses
and I’m never startled
by how unrecognizable they are
I live in one house during the day
and carry a notebook
to take down the proof
I can’t see my own face
only its reflection
I make a living with poetic renderings
and make myself at home
Every house is vaguely familiar
like a poem I haven’t written yet
like a place I love but only see
in the double-life of dreaming
Because a tree’s buried roots
are as real as its branches
The poems are the test
and the dreams are the answers
______Colleen Redman / Poets United / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
January 27th, 2019 10:16 am
I really love that last stanza….thinking of the poems being the test and the dreams are the answer. There definitely is an integral connection between poetry and dreams.
January 27th, 2019 11:24 am
May all the roots that feed your poems live forever!
January 27th, 2019 11:35 am
I loved that closing too, very much. And i sometimes dream of unfamiliar houses too, that i am moving into.
January 27th, 2019 11:43 am
It seems you have it all sorted out. “The poems are the test/and the dreams are the answers.”
January 27th, 2019 11:52 am
I love this… made me think of poetry in a new way… and I hope there are many many more rooms to fill with poem, just like the root of the tree will bring more and more roots.
January 27th, 2019 12:13 pm
Beautiful and carries the essence of not-quite real and very real that dreams do.
January 27th, 2019 12:25 pm
Love this especially; “the poems are the test and the dreams are the answers.” Beautifully profound!❤️
January 27th, 2019 1:52 pm
I love this write, beautifully done.
January 27th, 2019 1:53 pm
My Dear Ms Redmond:
The Shape Of Truth is, without doubt, one of the absolute best poems I have encountered in months.
BLAMMO!!!!!
Sincerely,
Ron. Lavalette
January 27th, 2019 1:55 pm
Thanks, Ron! I think it’s going to be the title of my latest collection.
January 27th, 2019 3:12 pm
That’s a perfect way to think of poetry – as houses – and a good idea to keep the proof in a notebook, Colleen. I especially like the lines:
‘Every house is vaguely familiar
like a poem I haven’t written yet’.
January 27th, 2019 4:17 pm
Wonderful! Makes sense to me.
ZQ
January 27th, 2019 6:34 pm
This is beautiful. I love that roots are just as real as branches. This particularly resonated with me.
January 27th, 2019 6:58 pm
Oh, what a lovely piece, and that last stanza is amazing.
January 27th, 2019 8:32 pm
Fab, I especially enjoyed the ending
January 27th, 2019 11:31 pm
Only poetry is real, everything else is just noise
January 28th, 2019 2:46 am
I echo what others have said; there is much to love in this poem. Perhaps I like best of all the comparison with roots and branches.
January 28th, 2019 5:55 am
Being so much older I find there is always some experience in my varied past that I can draw on to create poety. We all have those unseen roots all we have to do is dig!
January 29th, 2019 12:59 am
“…Every house is vaguely familiar
like a poem I haven’t written yet…” Just wonderful!
January 29th, 2019 12:47 pm
I’ve been to so many of those houses…but The House of the Rising Sun was my ruin. Lovely poem!
January 30th, 2019 5:58 am
Coleen. I love the delightful feelings there might be when having a Vagabond life. Much like when our little family shuttled from friend to friend to shelter when our home was unlivable for six months due to a tropical storm’s flooding. Very similar to my hippie style living, it took three pages of past addresses when my job required me to apply for a security clearance.
..
January 30th, 2019 5:55 pm
Oh, I love the ending. Some say I’m out of my mind, but truly I never leave it. 🙂
January 30th, 2019 6:22 pm
I meant to respond earlier on this…thought I had. anyway….I love the idea of the different houses we inhabit, the notebook we must always carry. This is what poets and writers are about.
January 31st, 2019 5:13 pm
I love your poem. It reminds me of long ago when someone took a chance on hiring me because she considered all my experiences of writing, researching, and teaching rather than just actual work experience which I did not have. Her decision put me on the path to where I am today. 🙂
February 2nd, 2019 5:03 pm
Truth can be so simple. Sometimes simple can seem complex lol. Coming back home to who we really are at our roots in the house of our choosing and reflecting that out through our passions & dreams is a truth like no other. <3
February 2nd, 2019 5:37 pm
The houses in my dreams are not always of my choosing but I can make myself at home there. I welcome those dreams because they tend to inform me the most without the intellectual bypass of the mind or personality that I live with during the day.
February 2nd, 2019 7:55 pm
I don’t know. Dreams for me are not unconscious. They are kind of like thoughts. There’s an awareness about them. You can be the observer and choose which room you want to be in. As part of awareness. But what do I know lol.
February 2nd, 2019 9:08 pm
Most of my dreams come from the subconscious, which is a little more connected to the conscious than the unconscious. I have been able to guide my dreams to a degree on rare occasions. The older I get the more dreamlike my life feels and more lifelike my dreams feel and writing poetry and dreaming have a lot in common. I like the interface of the two. I like the exploration and to let the psyche/soul guide/lead the way. It’s kind of like traveling to different places!