Dreams, like dew in the early morning,
drip from a shipwreck survivor’s rag.
Each glistening drop a chance, hope
against another day of slow gnawing
thirst.
Dreams are dew in these latitudes—precious, scarce.
To cling to one is to forsake the other.
Staring at the dew collected on his faded rag,
he squeezes it above his mouth.
Each drop a moment’s
relief.
In the blistering afternoon,
dreams of early morning dew
fly off like the shorebirds
he imagined yesterday.
He marvels at each drop,
each perfect liquid globe,
like the one surrounding him,
that only delays
thirst.
In these shimmering drops,
he sees sharks and a noose
tied by his own hand.
Each dream falls due
against the night,
the moon’s reflection,
endless rolling waves
fade
like dreams,
like dew
in the early
morning.
—
This is for Read Write Poem: It’s all about the First Line. The idea was that participants would contribute a line of poetry and then choose someone else’s as the starting point for a poem based on freewriting from the borrowed line.
This was heavily influenced by Jules Verne’s The Survivors of the Chancellor, which I read last week as part of my Lost reading project.
The first line, “Dreams like dew in the early morning” was provided by Sam at thinking cities… Make sure to pay him a visit and read some of his poetry. It’s good stuff.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
Hey James, guess what. My contribution to RWP this week was inspired by your first line. Cool coincidence!
And by the way, I love how you linked the survivor’s dew with his dreams. Very well written poem.
So many images here.Like the beginning a lot
By the way, how does one get the little panel of buttons to “slashdot it”, “digg this story”, etc, like you have below your posts? Or did you create that yourself?
I love the way the isolated words stand like dewdrops themselves in the midst of the poem, forcing you to . . . pause . . . as you read. The structure pulled me in, so I felt the same thirst, the same longing, as the shipwrecked survivor.
Sam, Thanks for your comments and the first line. I like what you did with mine. The panel of buttons comes from a WordPress plugin called slashdigglicious, which can be found at wordpress.org. There’s another one called sociable that seems to do the same thing.
Jeeves & throwshiswords, Thank you for your comments.
Great beginning. Made a very good read.
Thanks!
over the ridge and hard planes
Ooh…this made me thirsty. Lovely poem!
Very creative, the drops become his dreams and his hope, his relief… phew!
Nice poem James..”blistering afternoon”..we just go back from Cuba..where we had a few afternoons like this…getting thirsty….back home to the Rocky Mtns were there still snow on the ground and….dreaming of the “early morning dew”
I’ve never read the book you mentioned but I have seen the movie “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks. This poem reminded me a lot of that movie. Especially the part about the sharks and noose.
GREAT write!
Yeah, just read it again, love this!
Sweet Talking Guy…, Thanks for coming back. I’m glad to hear that it holds up to a second read.
Lori, It’s a pretty good book. It’s my first Verne novel, but I suspect I’ll be reading more. Liked your poem, by the way, but I couldn’t leave a comment on your site.
Wayne, Cuba to the Rockies… that’s quite a change.
HollyMac & Gautami, thanks for your kind words.
Good first line choice. I think it led your poem to become what it was. I could shut my eyes and see him in my mind.