Right before I woke up this morning, I was dreaming that I was writing poetry. I was organizing a poetry reading and, as a featured reader, I had to work on creating new poems. Poetry intimidates me, but in this dream really good poems were coming out of me, and I had all sorts of poetry prompt ideas for more good poems. That was my dream. So I woke up, grabbed my laptop, and came downstairs to make coffee. Here I am, not feeling particularly poetical, but feeling like I have an obligation to try to write.
Let me mention that I’m not a “dream” person. I don’t recall my dreams, discuss them, assign meaning to them, or keep a dream diary. I generally think dreams are mental flotsam and jetsam, foaming up while the central controls are down. Dreams sometimes make something pretty or interesting, but they are what my brain does while napping. Neither dreams nor snoring are meaningful to me, and they’re of about equivalent value.
There is one exception. A “truth” dream – A dream that reveals something I know to be true but haven’t acknowledged yet. A truth dream will tell me to pay attention because I need to do something important. I’ve had very few of these dreams. In February, I had a series of dreams that drove me into graduate school.
What makes these dreams different is that I wake up with a strong conviction about my course of action. Waking up with a sense of mission is a very exciting change when my greatest morning ambitions tend to be hygiene and caffeination. Waking up feeling decisive is a nice break from waking up feeling sluggish and a little out of sorts at being awake.
Today, I am listening to my dream, even if all I write is one blog post.
May your dreams point the way to something great in your lives.
Merry post-Christmas time: may you enjoy it in good health and good company.
2 replies on “Dreaming about Writing”
Part of the experience of dreaming that stuck with me into being awake was the incredible sense of satisfaction while writing poetry. As soon as I woke up, I knew I had to do something to try to regain that feeling.
Don’t you wish you could write down those poems in the dream so you could take a look at them while awake? I remember having a very vivid dream where I heard the most wonderful music, but of course upon waking I couldn’t remember the tune at all. I also recall dreaming about programming, and having an idea for a program that seemed profound and clever. I really did remember it when I woke up, and it still seems like a good idea, just not as cool as it seemed while I was asleep.