Sunday, August 17, 2008

Axiom

I'm not sure if you know; you talk in your sleep. I never slept well beside you. I lay awake at night a million miles away and sometimes you spoke... Your words came mostly as nonsense but somehow I understood them all, saw them in your waking life, your moving through the world, your interaction with others.

One night as I lay awake you told me that the flame had gone out and that it was a sort of loyalty or duty that kept us together, not a passionate love. And though for me a fire blazed I could see where that came from, I saw it every day -- the flower withers; the seed remains.

11 comments:

chook said...

You turned in your sleep
And offered a dove sigh
But in the morning
The crow returned

Enemy of the Republic said...

This is a little scary to me. I talk in my sleep; I also enact my dreams. I've actually hit my husband and even literally attacked him.

He fears sleeping next to me at times, not because he may find out about some indiscretion, but he doesn't know if he is equal to the pain I carry unconsciously. Does that make sense?

Anonymous said...

enemy--you've been a fairly regular reader and contributor to hopper' s blog, so you should know by now that he writes his way into not only your heart, but also your dreams; into the secret places that call out for introspection and he takes you there with language as soft as prayer.

with all you carry into sleep, may your inner journeys be as meaningful and restorative as you need them to be.

this community is quite wonderful--a tribute to all of you and to this blog--and its author- cites/sites that compel powerful reflection.
thanks for the opportunity to visit
Hope

BBC said...

I've been told a few times that I talk in my sleep. Mostly just nonsense or something funny.

BBC said...

But what Virgin said was interesting so I left a comment on her blog, if she approves it.

American Hill BIlly said...

Hopper,

That was very good. I am guilty of letting either truths, or oddities out when I sleep.

When confronted about them, and with much thought they are not always as seems from what was actually said. It is the subconscious afterall. I do believe that in dreams we access other realms, and what you are hearing could be from somewhere else. This existence is all, but an illusion.


United In Peace And Freedom

human being said...

oh my! this BURNS something somewhere in my soul... very beautiful...
so this is the journey of fire and our relationship to it... version IV...
a very deep understanding... and so true...
nothing dies... even fires... and love... we have this process of growth... sometimes you don't see the flower anymore... with diminishing the passion, love is not gone... it's kind of entering a new phase... it's seeding... a new life is hidden in it... if we tend it, a new flower will bloom... a new fire will be ablaze...

axioms are taken for granted and don't need to be proved... but i loved the way you subtly convinced the reader to accept this fact through a very beautiful analogy...

really enjoyed reading it as these days all i had on my mind was a flower pot with a withered plant in it... and me watering it each day not knowing why... now i distincly know why i was doing that...

good and true writers walk in the streets of their readers' sleep... that's why this piece resonates so strongly...

welcome back Jon... i'd really missed you and your mind-intriguing and soul-reviving words...
namaste!

switch said...

..with language as soft as prayer.

I think you nailed it, Hope. Thank you.

I suppose that's why I am so often stuck for a comment, I read and re-read and can rarely find a response...who can comment on a prayer?

Unknown said...

Imagine my surprise
When while washing the dishes one night
She said this very thing to my face
Two weeks later
She was gone...

Lynn Cohen said...

I am not sure if it's my therapists hat I am needing to yank off my head; or my own heart that beats and hears your words and feels the aches the pains the bleeding that is reacting to your words this and other times.

Please write once about a happy relationship...while I am in this corner licking wounds.

Anonymous said...

Fern--thank you for your comment; I have been a silent visitor to this blog for almost a year now, and have been able to see that there is possibility in communities such as this one. I have been visiting other blogs as well and have only recently begun making tentative comments.
I particularly like this blog and the atmosphere that has been set by its author and how the community encourages and plays; also how much attention is paid to expression-- quite unusual and refreshing.I was taken by Enemy's comments and that pulled me in and now I am touched by Fern's comment.
the piece itself--Axiom-- is able to inspire all kinds of reflections and constellations. I have found this with much, if not practically all of Hopper's words(in so many varieties- stories,vignettes, verses, comments,descriptions)-- I hope I can continue to be enriched by visiting and learning
my thanks to you all for creating and nurturing this space--this is a fairly risky and tentative proposition for me and I am so far encouraged
Hope