Under the Floorboards, by Dan Sicoli

Prose poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

The poems in Under the Floorboards were influenced by an inspirational technique of artist Salvador Dali wherein he employed a method to recall dreams by napping in a chair while holding a key above a dish lying below on the floor. As he dozed off the key would eventually fall to the plate making a noise that would awaken him. He would immediately write or sketch out his dream images before they faded.

Also, borrowing from the haibun form, these poems begin with a somewhat faux prose paragraph or stanza and finish with a single line rather than a haiku, as a traditional haibun poem would. While loosely based on the Japanese forms, they are neither, and, are perhaps, something other.

Before turning in each night, a few lines were written down and then again upon immediately waking up in the morning while the residue of dreams still lingered. The lines were saved and re-worked into poems at a later date resulting in a surreal feel, merging emotional leftovers with real-life events, dream sequences, consequences, fantasies, and sensory responses. They speak of the human condition from a random, if not, a stream-of-consciousness angle.

Dan Sicoli lives between two Great Lakes in New York State where he is an editor with Slipstream. In 2026, Ethel Press released his latest poetry collection entitled, Slag Alley. A three-time Pushcart nominee, he’s placed poems in numerous print and electronic litmags, anthologies, and broadsheets. Pudding House Publications released two chapbooks of his, Pagan Supper, and the allegories, a number of years ago. Late summers he oven dries homegrown San Marzano tomatoes.