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VISITING PATIENCE

It's Saturday morning , I'm awake
from a strange and haunting dream
(And I hardly ever recall dreams)
they come and go like a wet weather stream.

I was floating up above the land,
(as, in dreams, folk so often do,)
surveying scrub land and red sand.
Over Australia I flew.

Somehow I knew this wasn't now.
I'd gone far both in miles and time
to a past decades ago
ere I had written my first rhyme.

And among this scrub wound a faint path
which led to a small abandoned house
that declined beside a little brook
whose waters darted like a mouse.

At that house a girl and boy,
her ragamuffin, he wild and free,
were water painting on a pad.
(brother and sister don't you see)

They'd swipe on colors then they'd laugh
in that high pitched voice that children use,
both sitting on that sagging porch
grown gray from rain and sun's abuse.

Somehow I knew she wasn't right
but neither of them seemed to care.
He'd disappear around the shack
then say "BOO!" when next she saw him there.

She'd throw back her curly tangled head
and laugh out loud at everything,
with dirty face and merry eyes,
at all the joys the day would bring.

Again Jess went around the house
and this time he stayed gone a while.
Patience didn't seem to mind.
She saw me and lit with a smile.

She showed me all the pretty things
they'd painted and put in a stack
and asked if I'd paint something too
because her Jess would be right back.

I told her I painted with words
and water colors weren't my thing
but I'd be glad to stay a while.
Perhaps instead we both could sing.

So we sang a song of kangaroos
and the dream ended as they do.
And this poem is the stuff of dreams.
I doubt a word of it is true.

Style / type: 
Structured: Western
Review Request (Intensity): 
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Last few words: 
I hope Jess will forgive me for relaying this dream I had last night
Editing stage: 

Comments

How kind of you to give jess"s Patience this tribute. I can't tell if this would draw a smile or bring a tear into Jess' s eyes, but I bet he would be eventually happy to find his friend sharing him some of his grief.
l thought the amount of imagery and your imagination didn't go beyond the desirable amount.
Thanks for sharing

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

As I stated in this write I almost never recall dreams. So to dream of then recall this dream demanded that I record it . I know Jess thinks there is nothing after death. Yet until his blog I never even knew he had a sister and I'd not read his tribute there until after I'd written this. I had no idea if his sister was and active person and outgoing or one who was so sevierly afflicted as to not be much responsive to the world around her. Yet this dream had her as happy and active...........I don't know how to explain this. Perhaps she has joined Ian's children spirits and came to me to bring memories of happier times to Jess when he needs them.
And as is usual for me I wrote with little thought to imagery, it just happened. Thank you for dropping by........stan

author comment

Do you mean you did really have this dream?

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

is exactly what I mean. The setting, the slightly impaired Patience, the young Jess, old abandoned house, painting, scrubby unfamiliar undergrowth, the whole thing. I Did take a bit of license to insert rhyme and shorten the tale but that was all. ..........stan

author comment

I was deeply touched and thoroughly gobsmacked.

I can not explain how the dream came to you. We did indeed play games of "boo" and building things together from Playdough.
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - William Shakespeare
An atheist I am, close-minded I am not.

Patience was indeed a cheery, gregarious soul and if she could be lying and manipulative, she could also be deeply loving and generous.

Thanks for this Stan,
for once I am at a loss for words.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

I hesitated writing this because I know your opinion on life after death. But then I considered that perhaps Patience also knew this and just visited me (I don't know why Me) to pass along this to you. I believe her message was that you should remember the good times when you think of her. And this is not the first such experience I've had. I hope you are doing better and appreciate your dropping by...........stan

author comment

does seem to run in my family. My great grandmother, a midwife, was notorious for turning up in her horse and buggy, before telephones, to assist with a premature, difficult birth, on more than one occasion. My mother, before the Alzheimer's got her, would unfailingly ring me or my sisters when we were in trouble. And Patience herself once held a long conversation with my deceased father and niece in my mother's presence, it freaked Mum out, she said the pauses and timing were perfect, as if Patience could really hear what Dad and Daneka were saying.

If Patience did indeed visit you I don't doubt that she perceived that I have come to like and respect you, despite our shaky beginnings. She and I had difficulties when we were younger and resolved them in later years, before the Alzheimer's debilitated her.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

I suspect that our turbulent beginnings had a lot to do with different cultures. I thought that when ANYbody called another a fucker or told them to fuck off it was an assumed prelude to a fight. That's how I was raised and most folks around here didn't use such strong language unless they were prepared to get a bloody nose. Apparently in a lot of countries (and even the Yankee part of this one) such language is common place. I don't claim to have any type psychic abilities. But there have been those 2 times when I was "visited" by a recently departed person.
I put off the first visit from my brother as just a means of dealing with his death. But I never knew or even heard of your sister .... inexplicable. So believe as you will, but the law of conservation of energy states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, it can only be changed into a different form. And death has been defined as ceasing of brain activity which is a measure of electrical impulses . When they cease, there's no sudden change into matter. So it must be a change into another type energy. So whether there is or isn't a god in the sense most people think there is....there's Something ...........stan

author comment

A journey to other places,, but to where some will know of and be familiar with,
I am amazed that it was so clear to you and that you could recall the scene, very much like remote viewing, which in many quarters is scoffed at.
So why do some countries seek out people that can do this not in dreams but trance.
A lovely dream that held a message for Jess I suppose, but he is as he said an "atheist", then adds "close-minded I am not"
There are many things that happen in this world that are beyond explanation, thank you Stan for relating this dream to us.
What a beautiful thing to be a part of it has brought much emotion from the scene and the words.
One day as the sun sinks into the land, there in the cool evening breeze I shall speak your name in think.
Take care and again thank you for this one, Yours Ian

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

As I did not know the lady, I cannot say how accurate your tribute is, but I'm sure that if Jess gave it a 'thumbs up' it must be close! Great job, my friend!

I write some poetry about dreaming but this is only the second I ever wrote about a specific dream. I was "pushed" to write it almost as soon as I woke from the dream. Strange, strange...............
I appreciate you taking time to drop in on this unexplained thing........stan

author comment

There ARE more things on heaven and earth that we can account for. This was only the second such dream I've ever had (at least that I remember) in which a recently departed person seemed to be sending a message. the first was a visit from my brother. Thanks for visiting this...........stan

author comment

the portrait was pretty accurate. Dad was a construction engineer and we moved constantly from site to site in the Australian bush, often staying in dilapidated pre-fab temporary accomodation.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

I am flabbergasted that even those details were correct...............stan

author comment

You are just going to have to accept the things that happen in this world, and the links we have with many things, even Jess is talking about previous things that were unexplainable
I still hold my children as I call them in great esteem, and the things they talked to me about, then there are many other things I have been told and recorded.
I have never had a good religion on my journey in this world, though I have always been aware that there is something just a thought away that is for me, and did have many talks in thought with what ever.
Since 2001 when I joined my present wife and the communications became more solid and the teachings of same, I just am content and can give so much out without sapping my energy, also a few years of talking to Sadie who I have mentioned many times.
Now with this poem of a dream so real, and the side effects it just makes me more happy with things around, and as always I give you both unconditional love, and say just accept that there are things that are but a thought away.
Cant think of what else to say but if there are any questions about some of these things then just ask I am sure the children will let you have an answer,
Yours as always Ian, Anne, & the Children

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

it is kind, loving and insightful (even though we are city folk and never saw the red outback, except on holiday).

Thank you.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

No thanks needed. I'm just pleased I captured a bit of her spirit.......stan

author comment
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