oranges lemons I cried in my sleep
and will it be on the way to St. ives
I will catch the spring rains in a summer glass
and the fever will subside
lemons oranges is it too late
and fruit that is chilled in a hardscrabble room
or I will drink orangeade under the moon
and the neighbors will not yell in the hall
in syllables that mean nothing at all
turning my face to a crystal wall
no longer fitful.
and I will wash Christ with limewater bells
and line with gold the linoleum floor
that the children may not cry anymore.
lemons oranges
fairy water in the wells
mary angela douglas 9 february 2018
Note: The poem was written after being sick for a few weeks. I was actually asleep when I first started writing it today in my dream. I had the words oranges and lemons and was trying to put something in it about spring but in the dream I also wanted to put a faint pink light in it. and in the dream i was peeling clementines and lemons only the lemons were the same shape as the clementines. and i was trying to decide how many of each like in some childhood early math problem. i knew in the dream and eve nwehn i woke up that i was thinking of judy collins singing the bells of rhymney and later after i thought about it realized i had combined a little two english nursery rhymes and then the rest of it just turned out the way it did. but i was sitting down writing it in my dream. it has happened to be several times that i started working on a poem in my sleep or that the poem even in final forms the threads of it appeared to be just as i was waking up. this is the first time i physically sat down in the dream and wrote or began to work out the poem on paper and it has been years since i wrote a poem on a piece of paper as i always compose on the computer now. anyway i just wanted to remember this for later so I wrote it here.
and will it be on the way to St. ives
I will catch the spring rains in a summer glass
and the fever will subside
lemons oranges is it too late
and fruit that is chilled in a hardscrabble room
or I will drink orangeade under the moon
and the neighbors will not yell in the hall
in syllables that mean nothing at all
turning my face to a crystal wall
no longer fitful.
and I will wash Christ with limewater bells
and line with gold the linoleum floor
that the children may not cry anymore.
lemons oranges
fairy water in the wells
mary angela douglas 9 february 2018
Note: The poem was written after being sick for a few weeks. I was actually asleep when I first started writing it today in my dream. I had the words oranges and lemons and was trying to put something in it about spring but in the dream I also wanted to put a faint pink light in it. and in the dream i was peeling clementines and lemons only the lemons were the same shape as the clementines. and i was trying to decide how many of each like in some childhood early math problem. i knew in the dream and eve nwehn i woke up that i was thinking of judy collins singing the bells of rhymney and later after i thought about it realized i had combined a little two english nursery rhymes and then the rest of it just turned out the way it did. but i was sitting down writing it in my dream. it has happened to be several times that i started working on a poem in my sleep or that the poem even in final forms the threads of it appeared to be just as i was waking up. this is the first time i physically sat down in the dream and wrote or began to work out the poem on paper and it has been years since i wrote a poem on a piece of paper as i always compose on the computer now. anyway i just wanted to remember this for later so I wrote it here.
