The Castle of Dreams – A Poem

Happy Monday! It’s a new week and that means fresh opportunities to see hopes and dreams fulfilled! A sappy sentiment? Definitely, but I reckon going over the top on the optimistic side of the scale is better than the dour alternative.

But yes, it is Monday, and I woke up early today and began working on writing more of the eleventh chapter of my first non-poetry book! The scene I’m writing takes place in a compass shop just by the water, so I’m trying to work at painting the scene in a visual sense in spite of my difficulties with visualization. Ordering words comes much easier to me than picturing places, but I’m working on improving in that field all the same. I’ve been listening to a good bit of The Beach Boys since news of Brian Wilson’s passing came out a few days ago, so this morning when I wasn’t writing I was listening to parts of their albums Sunflower and Surf’s Up. I have Pet Sounds in my car, so I’m trying to branch out past that, and I wasn’t in the mood for the psychedelia of Smiley Smile.

I figured this morning I’d share a fun poem I wrote a while back! I was in a particularly Seussian sort of mood, and the rhyming of the word ‘sleep’ really grabbed hold of me. So, here’s The Castle of Dreams, and I hope everyone has a blessed week 🙂

The Castle of Dreams

I’m ready for a nap I think,
Positively on the brink.
In thirteen seconds, I’ll away 
To where the sleepy sleepers stay!

Allegedly, the sleepy sleepers
Follow their fair sleep-slope keepers
Down the sleepy-sleep-slope steep
To scope and peep the sleepers’ keep.

Ah, yes, the famous dreamtime castle!
Getting there may be a hassle
But I’ve heard the trip is worth it:
Pure elation, that will birth it!

Exactly what, you might be asking, 
Is the point of all this tasking?
Brilliant question! What I heard
Is that you’ll find a sleep preferred.

Inside the gates of castle dreamtime
O’er the moat of lemon-lime
Is found that famous keep where each
True sleepy sleeper thus must reach.

Again, this is all secondhand,
But how I heard and understand
The rumor is that through those doors 
Are found cloud-beds for you and yours.

Cloudlike-beds or bedlike-clouds
It’s one of those, I’m not allowed
To specify, but rest assured
Good reason keeps that now obscured.

Once in the keep, supposedly, 
You get all cozy-dozily
And then count sheep to duly reap
Within that keep, a deep, deep sleep.

And after that, or so they say,
Begins the noble dream ballet!
Each sleepy sleeper dance into
Dreams which only they can view.

It’s quite the process, I’ll admit,
But worth each second of the trip:
And now excuse me, if you will,
I must descend that steep, steep hill!