Haunting. I felt a little afraid and a little wanting to catch this vaporous shadow. I liked taking this journey with you. I like to be made to feel. Great write. Liz

I love the mystery of this, Jude, as we all know the presence but, perhaps, wonder if we are just a little bit over the edge and imagining it. It is always validating to hear others speak of it with a sense of understanding mixed with a lack of the same. I love this line:

Strolling across the flame of a liquid dawn

It shimmers like mercury as it falls and shatters in a million little pieces and seeks its own destination and space. Beautiful poem, I hope to be back soon to read again, I sure do miss it but I hate a disorganized life even more. A bit ocd I suppose or perhaps just a little anal, I find it difficult to feel comfort when things are not in their proper place. More likely, just the neurosis that comes with living alone for many years, I know exactly where everything is all of the time...sad yet wonderful it be!
Take care,
Sherry

Something almost tangible enough to taste. Great write, Jude! Enjoyed your use of metaphors.

George

A mystical quality fills this poem with haunting beauty. Well done!...M

I know I'll always enjoy reading anything you've written. It's good to be back after a long hiatus.

what a provacative and evocative write this is!
It is myterious...almost haunting....yet not darkly so. If anything the feeling here is one of excitement and expectation.
What is that presence?...the Past...the Future? Is it a poem being born...a dream becoming reality?
Excellent work my friend.

You are being prompted to renew your dream series? ;-)

Ron

Love the duallism in this and again, like with Stealthy Appearance, you have a gift of making the unknown so warm and user-friendly. Certainly, this is a very busy spectre... lots of "ing" words that are very concrete, forcing the Voice here to likewise "do": consider, ponder, retrace, look... in a very concrete way, too... but in the realms of the mind, perhaps, rather than in the actual world. It feels to me rather as if the Presence is just going about it's business, being watched by YOU! Seeking it out, in all the places you can and can't imagine... I love the "at all times and in all places" imagery, speaking of a permanent symbiosis. The first two stanzas make me think of the sentiments I wrote of in Et In Arcadia Ego:

"Here no more, I am present: Where light and waves ride together, I am traces in the air. I am with you as an ageless memory, a rise and fall of time and place, the rosy glow of distance. I am your unshakeable confidence, an indefinable shimmering haze."

... One of your recent best, Jude. It is tight in form and expression. This Presence has poetic weight! TY Kate xx

Wonderful imagery within this mysterious write my friend, you've penned a write that is very profound...creating images within the readers mind...I wondered if the shadow was that of yourself in days gone by...an outstanding write indeed, enjoyed this much!
Blessings,
Joyce B.

Hope it's a nice entity, not Freddy Kruger. Yikes Prowling in your notebook, that's when I found out I was the someone special in her life, along with half the of NY blokes...
Who yer gunna call?

Sounds like you are living a spooky life right now....lol....but still write excellent poetry that makes you think and your skin crawl at the same time!!

I wil rather go for spooky than spiders anyday!!

Love Tinka :)

Truly outstanding Robert...your work always makes me think long into the night...well done

Allen

Better dream then a nightmar'ish one. good write. Lady J

Whoa, this pens so deep I had to apply a safety line to my mind. Enjoyed

Again your mind takes us on the
Most wonderful and mysterious journey
I love the figurative language used
Is perfect in this very profound write
Your last two stanzas
Are very powerful my friend!!
Love Peace and Happiness...Morning Star

"Forming on the vapor of humid twilights"
These kinds of images, Jude, give poetic writing its magic and mystery. This is an excellent slice of imagination from a true, and undaunted, creative force. Blessings brother ...
Light and Wisdom ...
Richard

Jude,

I love your imagary, your words...captivating excellence!

(((HUGS))) and love, Karla.

Jude, our imagination can allure us in a teasing manner if we let it...we can place them any where at any time but we must keep our minds in tune with the imagination to live with it. This is interesting and kept me reading & then to read again.

those last two lines...say it all
"In all places I cannot"
Great imagery, Great writing Jude.

Jude -

A joy to read. A dream body is shadowing me .... everywhere I can imagine, in all places I cannot. Your beginning and ending are perfect bookends for your diaphanous stalker.

Kathy

Wonderful writng,enjoyed...Hugssss

As always, your words flow and capture us like a haunting melody...very nice.

As always, your imagery floors me! I LOVE the line 'prowling in my notebook'!

Love,
Susan

Something rare ready to import some rare knowledge! An intriguing write Jude.

The mystique of this interesting write caused me to read it again. I was trying to find out what that presence was---unseen but omnipresent---like God.

Intrigue and mystery lace this write and the reader is given the option of imagining or studying the possibilities. As always you leave us with an aura of other worldliness that is there but not there. Well done Jude.
Fee

Another part of us follows. This is what the poem says to me. They "other" one who keeps the dream alive, who has the gumption to forge into unknown waters hoping the "vaper" will shake something loose in the real you. If not, He stays shadowing, just in case. Nice job Jude.

Is really someone there? because we feel the presence, we hear when it says "don't do it", "say you are sorry", "keep going", that can't be hallucination, all the time, can it be?
You wrote about the one all of us know is there, though, many try to not believe in it.
Great write!!!
Georg

I can picture this entity, perhaps your guardian angel? Enjoyed

Way to go Jude! Outstanding work as always.
Marcia

sensitivity is sensed in this "presence"

Sci-fi caught in the gravity well of fascination...a buffet from a nightmare...precisely what the sci-fi advisors for Hollywood swallow, the meat of movie potential...cinematically biteworthy! Spirit cadaver with a bag of alligator parts stalking the Bronx...

Sage

i love the presence alluded to here- and the power of that presence

Ohhh, this is just delicious, and haunting. You have managed to pass this most elusive presence on to a very captivated reader. A toast to you!

Wow! This one just keeps the attention, pulled by suspense. Enjoyed this one very much.....

Be safe,
Karen

Fantastic. I love the imagery in first stanza outstanding!


Eileen

Stalking's illegal...get a restraining order...;) ed

I think I saw her..
I guess we can imagine anything?