Lost in a Painting #Laugh Along a Limerick

Artwork by Vladimir Kush

I once had a strange, wacky dream

Where lost in a painting, I seemed,

There an elephant goes,

With a horn for its nose,

Better this than Munch’s The Scream.

The Scream by Edvard Munch

This was a response to Esther’s Challenge for a Laugh Along a Limerick, to write a limerick that included the word dream. At first, I was looking to Salvador Dali for inspiration, but, searching the Internet, I came across this surrealistic art by Vladimir Kush. Do you notice that the antelope has a lyre between its horns, the foliage is also made of horns and that there are musical notations in the cloud shapes? It is bizarre, fantastical and dreamy but not unpleasant. In fact, an explanation on Kush’s site talks about “a fresh, positive side of surrealism.”

The Dreamers, #Poem

Artwork by Lisa Finch

Here, we drift, floating quietly,

Along a dreamy, silver sea,

All my six furry friends and me.

Max, he dreams of his buried bones,

Rupert dreams of the hearth at home,

Chance dreams of bacon of his own.

George dreams of Frisbees in the air,

Winston dreams of old boots, a pair,

Rex dreams of an old comfy chair,

And we slip adrift on a pillowed cloud,

With only pleasant dreams allowed,

All seven of us — a small crowd.

Into a book’s pages I fell,

Dreaming of the stories I’ll tell,

My pen dipped into my inkwell,

And we fly along an azure sky,

‘Til our siesta passes by,

Me and six furry friends of mine.

© Susan Joy Clark 2021

I’m sharing this with dVerse’s Open Link Night. I was looking through my picture files for poetry inspiration and found this copy of artwork by Lisa Finch. I just love it for several reasons. Many of you know that I have an animal care business, so that was one reason. I love the glamour of the female character here, the fact that she has fallen asleep with an open book and the title of the artwork which is also “The Dreamers,” which seemed to speak of imagination and creativity.

Lisa Finch has an Etsy shop where she sells some of her work on canvas and also prints and note cards. I perused it and found so many more pieces that I enjoy. Animals seem to be a common theme, not just pets but wild and exotic animals as well. Many of her pieces seem to have a sort of female Dr. Doolittle character. She has some fantasy and almost surrealistic scenes with some old Hollywood glamour combined in there. I almost feel I should revisit for an art-themed post.

Waking Up with Music on My Mind

Photo by blocks on Unsplash

I often wake up with a song playing in my internal jukebox. It can be rather random, just my brain pulling some song out of my mental archives.

And so, I just want to tell you …

Photo by Travis Yewell on Unsplash

how I’m feeling. My brain rickrolled itself.

And now, you’ve been rickrolled.

You’re welcome. 🙂

Blue

Photo by e on Unsplash

I read he was inspired

By the

Train.

There was something

About the rhythm

And the rattle

Of wheels

On the tracks.

Solitude and relative

Quiet, often

Foster

Creativity.

Sometimes, when I

Ride, in the

White noise,

I can almost hear

Notes and melodies,

Like a distant

Radio.

Somehow, for him

It clicked,

Like a wheel on

A track,

Rhythms and sounds,

Horns that almost

Imitate the noise

And clamor

Of a train in

Motion

But

Melodically.

An emotive

Clarinet

Cries and

Laughs, along

With

Thrilling swells,

Syncopation,

Exciting crescendoes and

Building rhythm,

Interrupted by

Sweet,

Lyrical, romantic

Melody.

Once, one of these

Crescendoes

Woke me

From a dream in

Which I was telling this

Story

Of the train and

Gerschwin.

Thank you,

Mr. Gerschwin

for your

“Rhapsody in

Blue.”

© 2021 Susan Joy Clark

This poem was written as part of dVerse’s Blue Tuesday challenge. (I think I am getting addicted to challenges.)

A little end note: I wrote a similar poem, free verse, about Gerschwin and the train for a college creative writing class years ago. This is not that original poem. With computer failures and changing devices over the years, I’ve lost some of my archives. The dream really happened, a lot more recently than my first poem on this theme. I had put together a classical playlist for insomnia, but this piece was a little too exciting for my insomnia!