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"Oneironaut" by Johannah O'Donnell

 

 

"Oneironaut" is the first poem in my first published full-length collection Lines of Flight, shortlisted for the Poets' Prize.

I have been an oneironaut my entire life. It is the bane of my existence.

Oneironaut

 

It’s said that ‘lucid dreaming’ tames

recurring nightmares. What the bleep –

it’s worth a try, like counting sheep.

And as I gave my monsters names,

the unknown landscape backed off, blurred.

I soared across the Seven Seas,

flew past the rising Pleiades,

pulled into port and slept.

                                            A word,

however, of advice: beware.

Though humdrum dreams may come to lull

the simmering inside your skull,

it’s merely a device. The bear,

the bug, bamboozled, may revive.

Sniff out the ruse. Eat you alive.

 

A Spoken Verse video of "Oneironaut" recited by Tom O'Bedlam is HERE.

 

Seven reviews of Lines of Flight  are available in the navigation bar to the left.

 

Definition of an oneironaut.