Feb 2022 rock guy-with-guitar
I have a recurring dream in which I'm in a dungeon-like place, which I reach via a treacherous, narrow spiral staircase. I know I'm there on an urgent matter, but it's not clear what it is. These dreams are always suffused with a feeling of deja vu -- or that they are a premonition of something to come. It's always the same bewildering mix of the two conflicting feelings. I had one of these dreams a few nights ago, and woke up to write down the first few lines, then worked on the rest of the lyrics over the last couple of days.
Dungeon
© 2022 Peter A. Rafle Jr. All Rights Reserved
[SONG NUMBER 5 for FAWM 2022]
I see a dungeon when I sleep
Down below the castle keep
Stalactites where the water seeps
In the dungeon of my sleep
The stairs are steep and spiral down
To my refuge underground
Ten thousand soles have smoothed the stones
The sentence here is mine alone
I know the way to every cell
The stories every shackle tells
Each passageway and iron bar
The smudge of every torch’s char
Am I inmate? Chaplain? Guard?
Watcher of the prison yard?
Who has called me here tonight
On this restless airless night?
Why do I return again, again
To this strange familiar den?
A memory of lives before?
Or what my future holds in store?
A prison only in my dreams
This dungeon is not what it seems
I am safe beneath the stones
Protected in the catacombs
I see a dungeon when I sleep
Down below the castle keep
Stalactites where the water seeps
In the dungeon of my sleep
@nancycunning Feb 2022
I like the way you capture the things that are tactile and concrete and the uncertainty of the context....It feels like dreams. And the way the dynamics support the changing feeling. And then the repeating of the first verse, that reinforces that idea of a dream that returns again....
@eas3637 Feb 2022
Beautifully creepy and evocative lyrics "Who has called me here tonight/On this restless airless night?" I also like the choice of horns in your production.
@tseaver Feb 2022
Cool write: I love that the dungeon has been there long enough for stalactites to form. The turn "protected in the catacombs" is great.
@standup Feb 2022
Interesting dreamworld question -- who am I? Prisoner, guard, chaplain?
I've had dreams of underground caverns under my house, but usually there's no evidence of people or torture.
Interesting the narrator finds safety in the dungeon, it's safe.