I ate a poem today

Posted on by Reena Saxena

I ate a poem today
No, I hold nothing against the poet
It was accidental
I was holding a page open
and I dozed off.

The poem spoke to me
in my sleep
as it could not
during my waking hours

It had permeated
layers of the subconscious
to find connecting points
why did I underline certain parts
with a not-so-sharp, old pencil

The poem re-emerged
in shining letters
on a dark screen
to reveal new layers of meaning

I woke up
and shelved the book
probably, it had revealed
more than it should
both the poet and reader
deserve their privacy
but end up
intruding
into each other’s space.

OLN #406

32 thoughts on “I ate a poem today”

  5. I love this meta poem, Reena! Eating poems is a good habit – low in calories but high in imagination and creativity. I am familiar with poems speaking in my sleep, and I’m happy when poet and reader intrude into each other’s space.

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  10. This is wonderfully imaginative and quietly profound. The opening line—“I ate a poem today”—is so unexpected that it instantly pulls the reader in, and then gently unfolds into something much deeper.

    I love how you’ve captured that strange, intimate space between reader and poet—where understanding doesn’t always happen consciously, but seeps in through dreams, memory, and feeling. The idea of the poem finding its way through the subconscious is especially striking—it feels true in a way that’s hard to explain, but easy to recognize.

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