Journey to Ixtlan

“Stuff of Dreams” is about a person who awakes from dreams to a world consumed by the chase of the impossible. Sleep is desired again, if only to dispel the pursued shadows of the waking realm.


Stuff of Dreams

Shadows where none should be
glimpse of shades when I wake
outlier of my dreams
beg for the attention shown
unlikely refugee
from the dawn of where I began
disturb the rest that was my peace
now in the dusk of life’s twilight
cast by lights only I can see
if only I had lived those years
from a distance too far to breach
echoes of a life that passed me by
in this place I could not conceive
beauty glimpsed that stops my breath
filled with cravings I cannot please
from the depths of ancient hunger
if only I did not travel so deep
longing for the way to catch
plunged ahead to find what I seek
never finding the golden prize
surrounded by a forest of trees
on the pedestal in far glade
paths that lure away from safety
across the void of doom’s presence
this traveler will soon perceive
the futility of the attempt
longing for the calm of far valleys
where the shadows are no more
to find again the stuff of dreams

2017, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved, 20170102.

The poem "Twilight Partner" is about a particular kind of dream.


Twilight Partner

Visitor in the veil
appearing in pleasure
vanished at daybreak.

Unplanned encounter
unable to coerce
yet here we are again.

Perhaps a stranger I see
it matters little to me
given the attention received.

The focus is contact
varied in nature
desired in the whole.

Twilight partner
until the phantoms leave
dance again with me.

© 2016, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved, 20160420.

One night I dreamed about demonic visitors. Two nights later I dreamt I met a righteous farming family. The poem “Dream Messengers” is about this duality.


Dream Messengers

Dreamscapes are revelations
outside my waking mind.
The rules do not apply
when doors are opened wide.
The outcomes defy logic
when REM is the motion.
The scenes are divergent
in the halls of sleep.

There is no lexicon to explain
the visions from beyond.
There is no reason
for the angels and red devils.
Will I awake with guidance
from these fae messengers?
Their words are different
when repose is my native land.

With thoughts full released
from visions of forty winks
I consider if I've been told
the truth now unconcealed.
I'll not play both sides
when the truth is the mean.
Dualities may haunt my rest.
To wake is my sole escape.

© 2016, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved, 20160104.

The poem “Fay Embrace” is about the nightly encounters in the realm of sleep.

Fay Embrace
Bonus Poem for Day 311 – 20151108

Sent from realms incorporeal,
perhaps from heaven or from hell,
neither mattered to me then
when intimacy was a kiss.

Your body held me close,
for a moment I was loss.
Submerged in earthly delight
in the realm off in the stars.

Our murmurs did lip breach,
spoken words to fill the space,
second to the physical,
chorus to the amour kept.

The world around a fantasy,
mirage of the day's awakening,
your reaction dispassionate,
so I carried on with our zeal.

I pushed forward in recklessness,
a soul driven to compensate
for a reality beyond the veil,
the waking dream yet incomplete.

Our tryst too soon ceased,
fading as smoke in that state.
Another scene took its place
as you were pulled from my arms.

Fay embrace in my dreams,
lovely phantom I do need,
I leave you now when I wake,
smiling as your kiss slowly fades.

© 2015, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved.

How do you write a poem? Sometimes I just start with an idea, and this can be just a single sentence. I saw a posting about a collection of pictures called “Dreams are Dangerous”. I thought that sounded great, so I spun a poem about the nightmare side of dreams.

Dreams are Dangerous
Poem for Day 039 – 20141101

Do you dare to dream?
Would you start to sleep?
To drift into worlds
separate from waking.
To dream is to drift,
seeking more than life.
Seeing other realms,
far realities.
Perhaps you embark
into the dreams near.
Further you may go,
to distance places.

Strange sights greeting you,
malefic stalk you.
Where have you landed?
A nightmare walking.
Beware dear sleeper,
you are in danger.
You life is forfeit,
so unfortunate.
Shadows do surround,
mutterings do sound.
You the visitor
in this evil land.

Turn from the dark path.
Beware the false signs.
Mislead you they will
away from safe exit.
The siren beckons.
The cries for help call.
Listen to them not.
Doom is all they bring.
Seek the lighted path.
Seek the plan wood door.
Safety it will bring,
awakened again.

© 2014. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved.

I really like to dream, and I mean the sleeping type when I say that.  While I remember few details from the majority of my dreams, they are a welcome diversion from the waking life.  Why?  For one, I don't have the aches and pains of waking life.  My dreams are populated with a diverse group of people I don't know in waking life.  Very few people from my waking life ever show up in my dreams.  My adventures in my dreams are often mundane, but some are pretty interesting.  I see a lot of interesting places that would be interesting to photograph.  There are some dreamscapes that I seem to return to again and again. These have some wonderfully distressed buildings.  

My dreams tell me that I'm not an introvert through and through.  There are just too many people in my dreams for that to be a truth.  I've got to think that my dreams help keep me sane, and they are beneficial to my future health.

I had a really interesting dream recently. I was walking around a friend's house and noticed that it was really quite large. Behind the house was a series of unused machine/tool shops. The aura of abandonment caused me to wish I had my camera with me. This is not uncommon. My dreams often feature landscapes of derelict and abandoned buildings, and I often find myself wishing I had my camera to record the images.

Well, I went into the workshops to check out what was left. Spirits began to appear and I asked one of them if I could take pictures. Somehow they communicated the answer "no" through a scrap of paper with writing and a number. Suddenly the workshops were alive with activity, and I had the impression I had been transported back in time. This has happened in past dreams. The eerie thing is that people were being shown how to make coffins, and I had the impression that the years were during WWII. I walked through the connected buildings and came to a shopping area. The time shifted when I entered a store and found 1960s style "Scobby Doo" pajamas. I reflected that I could come back with money from those years, but the money would probably cost me as much as buying a replica of the pajamas now.

I left the shop and the scenery changed back to one of abandoned decay. I rushed back into the shop and saw that the merchandise was gone. I sensed something was different and this was confirmed when a person came out of the shadows and told me that I would find it very difficult to escape from the place. I had ventured far into the time-shifting buildings. It felt as if I was in a nightmare/twilight place between realities. I either then willed myself to shift dreamscapes or I just woke up. Either way, it was nice to leave the new temporal dream location.

So, I dream about taking pictures in my dreams. I also dream about cats, driving, festivals, groups, homes and schooling. These are all reoccurring "themes" in my dreams. Does anybody else have a theme that reinserts itself in dreams more often than not?

I've had very few true sleeping nightmares. It seems most of my terrors are during waking hours. Anyway, one of the few nightmares I remember involved a spiral staircase that I found in an alley. Somehow I knew that people had hung themselves from these stairs. No bodies were present at that time, but I was filled with dread and fear. It is the dreams that have an absence of terror objects that have scared me the most.

Movies I don't like:

Ones in which you know the 'good guys' will die or fail in the end.

My Dreaming Paradoxes:

I do lots of things alone (i.e. lunch), but constantly dream of crowds.

My death wish makes me think those who pass on are the lucky ones, but I fight to survive in my dreams.

I have some physical challenges in RL (knees, back), but I'm not hampered by these in my dreams.