dreams are juxtaposed in rapid interchanging scenes.
beauty i can’t see an intrigue, and patently absurd
the wild as i scream my lungs out till i’m fully awake
backstory: Some people dance their nightmares, I write mine. That’s the only gift, albeit in an ugly wrapping, I get from this experience. What do you do with your nightmares?
p.s. I’m also linking to Poets and Storytellers United.
i like how you described in your sijo the result of a bad dream.
my nightmares, i write some of them too. they can appear in my blog. 🙂
If I am lucky, I can shift the nightmare into something else. But I have to be aware that I am dreaming to do it. If not, I always can journal. Usually that helps me put things into perspective.
I’m so lucky I don’t seem to get nightmares any more. But if I did, I too would write them.
Interesting.. never wrote any of them down! Dreams either. A 2022 journal seems necessary now!
Your poem captures the disjointed confusion of a nightmare perfectly, Khaya. I rarely have nightmares, but like you the nighmare troubles of the awake world end up in my writing, filled with suffering and hope.
I wake myself up. Sounds weird, but I always know when I’m dreaming and that I control it. I just did this a week or so ago.
As a child long into my middle adulthood I had nightmares on a regular basis. Back when I was a kid, the doctor reassured my Ma that I just had a hugely overactive imagination which somehow was supposed to make those nightmares more tolerable! Maybe-maybe not. But as I got older, I took that as a compliment to my ‘creative side’ HA!
Like kegarland, I learned to ‘get into my dream’ and wake myself up…
Nightmares not withstanding, keep dreaming, Khaya.
I’m one of those fortunate people who doesn’t have nightmares, an occasional slightly disturbing dream, but I’ve never had a wake up screaming type of nightmare. I do love to read about them however!!
I try not to have nightmares. Please wake me up when it’s over…
“Some people dance their nightmares” – I like your phrase on this.
I’m glad to hear I’m not alone in writing them. 🙂 Thank you for reading.
Good to hear about how you deal with your nightmares, Rommy. And yeah, I’m back to journaling every day with a vengeance.
You are lucky indeed, Rosemary.
Oh, really! Dreams, not nightmares, have inspired many of my poems. And now, I think I’ll capitalize on these nightmares, too. 🙂 I agree a 2022 journal is a must, especially now that we are back to battling the virus. No end in sight, it seems.
Say that about nightmare troubles of the awake world! These feature too, in my writing.
It doesn’t sound weird at all, Kathy. Some nightmares I seem to be able to control and wake myself up. Others not so much control, they wake me up.
I like your taking them as a compliment to your creative side. Maybe I’ll get to that point, too. Thank you so much, Laura. I promise I won’t ever stop dreaming, regardless. 🙂
This is a new experience for me too, Bev. A lot of things factor in to this resurgence of nightmares. But you are lucky getting off with an occasional slightly disturbing dream. “I do love to read about them however” well, thank you for reading. 🙂
Yeah, I wish someone could wake me up too, sometimes. 😀 Thanks JB!
Yeah, so many countries in Europe seem back to battling rising cases. This is like 2020 all over again… hope there’s no new variant and things are contained. Stay safe, Khaya.
True, many countries in Europe including us are battling a rise in cases. So, yes we are taking extra caution. Thank you so much, Rajani for caring. I appreciate.
My sleeping nightmares are few and far between, and journaling can help me make sense of them. Thank you for sharing your poetry, Khaya.
The tone and imagery of your poem make the nightmare very real for me.
I write and discuss my nightmares, the latter with my Piano Man and best friend. But, like you, writing is my first line of defense… or attack, I suppose.
Thank you for reading Natalie. I think so too, that journaling help make sense of them.
Discussing them sounds like another great way of dealing with nightmares. I’ve never tried that. For one, they can be so weird that writing them seems an “easier” option. Thanks Maga for sharing your line of defense.
Khaya, an unsettling poem recreating the dislocation of a nightmare, the sudden wakening. Sometimes they stay with me for a whole day, where the real feels unreal, the nighttime world taking on a power of its own. Not good days; writing about them does not seem to help and I wonder if this gives them more strength?
I hear you, Annika! Sometimes some of these nightmares stay with me for days. 🙁 I’m sorry to learn that you experience nightmares, as well. They are definitely not best of inspirations for writing, at least for me. But in writing about them I can at least distance myself from the experience in the dream, draw different interpretations or simply alter the ending like a fictional story. I hope you find some comforting or other creative ways to deal with them.
My dreams are usually dreams about frustration where I want to go somewhere but can’t get there. They are not quite frightening enough to be nightmares.
You are lucky in that sense, Graham. Because nightmares can be paralyzing, and that haunting feeling that stays for days long after.
I too write my nightmares. Nightmares is why I write horror. I have had vivid, persistent nightmares my entire life, particularly in childhood. The only way to get them out of my head was to put them on the page.
Now that you mention, “Nightmares is why I write horror.” it starts to make sense why I’m drawn to and dabble in the genre. I never thought about it this way. Thank you for this enlightenment. This is also what I love about sharing experiences with other writers, I gain new perspectives.
Dreams always tell us something, even the nightmares and the bizarre dreams. I have dreamed more than once I was dead, and had adventures on the “other side” Once I dreamed I “woke up dead” one night. In the dream, I realized I was dead, but couldn’t figure out what had happened. I knew I was not feeling well and was tired when I went to bed. but other than that, no reason for it I could determine. Then I heard a voice behind me saying, “Well, I didn’t do it”, and turned around to find an old woman in my house I had never seen before. After that shock, I realized there was no going back and tried to make the best of it. I got into some futuristic car outside, and before long ended up at a restaurant in an old, dark and heavily timbered building. Lots of people, no one could see me. I wandered down past the kitchen and saw staff at work. Pots and pans banging, people talking. Then I saw a short corridor past the kitchen with a big EXIT sign over the door at the end. I knew I had to go through that door, and hastily went for it. I did, and woke up in this life again, not quite believing I was back among the living.
Oh wow, what a dream! It reads like fiction. 🙂 And how brave of you to go through with it till the end, making the best of it! The ending is satisfying, too. The lesson I take here is that maybe I should let my nightmares run their course till the end, instead of waking myself up. Because the end might not be that scary after all, and hopefully I’ll stop being plagued by recurring dreams. Thank you so much Lavinia for sharing your experiences with dreams. I appreciate your visits here, always.