'Dreams'

Dreams are fascinating visually speaking. A question I send out to you all is What colour do you dream in? I have asked this question of many people and the answers vary. There are the people who do not remember their dreams and there are those who believe that their dreams are telling them something.

I dream in black and white and never colour. Whereas, my partner dreams in vivid colour and he can make out faces and objects. The interesting part to my dreams is that most of the time I dream about stories I am writing. I get a visual cue for my story and then I can write.

I see my characters visually and then I picture them in settings that accommodate my narrative. I guess this is probably a bit out there, but it works for me. So if dreams are meant to mean something then, what meaning can be gathered from my dreams?

One of my favourite poems about dreams is Edgar Allan Poe's: 'A Dream Within a Dream'. It is as follows:

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And , in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night,or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep-while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Ref: Aiken, Conrad, A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry, Random House,New York, 1944.

This poem is a love poem but it does emphasise the importance of dreams in our lives. Dreams which can work for all!

So go forth and tweak your dreams for writing.