it’s late
so maybe Fate
has decreed you be asleep
may your dreams
have supple seams
for my presence to slip in
i will dare
love’s blind ensnare
step in and fall away
good night my love
star fire hugs
pour down on you from space
i hope you feel
that this is real
a game one doesn’t just play
Inspiration Revealed #
My muses inspire me when I write.
Your muses inspire you when you read.
Below I choose to disclose the inspirations and interpretations of my own poems.
Maybe our muses told us some of the same things. Read on below if you really want to find out.
Inspiration #
Youthful Ideas Of Dreams #
When I was a young boy I thought about how I would sometimes dream about other people. They would appear in my dreams and we would have adventures, like go on picnics or go to Six Flags Great Adventures or the beach.
The first few times it happened I would wonder if they knew they had been in my dream. Had they come into my dream on purpose? Once in the waking world it became obvious that they had no clue where they had been. Likewise, a few times my mother told me she had dreamt of me and I had had no idea that I had been pulled into her dream, or had traveled there without knowing it.
Maybe we all forget exactly where we go while we dream.
Regardless, I thought it would be an extremely cool power to be able to travel into the dreams of others and vice-versa. And then an adequate response to someone saying “in your dreams!” would be “alright, tonight then? what time do you pillow?”
In middle school, I had a crush on a girl; I tried to travel into her dreams even though by that age I knew it was just an exercise in imagination. Only in my dreams did I have the courage to talk to her and go on adventures.
The idea of traveling through dreams is not new. I’ve seen it more often now in recent days and it’s tough to say what inspired my poem. Was it the modern day movies? Or the books? Or the childhood fantasies of a super-power to walk into dreams? Maybe all of the above? Possibly.
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake #
SPOILER ALERT: I spoil 1 book detail here.
In the book titled “The Atlas Six” there is a character that can travel through dreams. It turns out this character is not human. He’s a half merman of sorts. A second character, a human, learns how to Dream Walk in order to see his half merman friend.
The power to Dream Walk is apparently very magically draining for humans to use and perform. Only the highest of medeians (mages) attempt it and can learn it to some degree so it speaks volumes about the human that has learned to perform it in the book.
Dr. Strange Madness #
SPOILER ALERT: I spoil 1 movie detail here.
The Marvel movie “Dr. Strange In the Multiverse of Madness” is interesting in its use of a power called Dream Walking that Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch can perform. It lets them travel into a parallel universe and possess the body of their “other self” in that universe.
Maybe in my childhood dreams I crossed over into and possessed a version of myself and went on actual adventures.
Inception #
SPOILER ALERT: I spoil 2 movie details here.
In the movie Inception Leonardo DiCaprio and his posse of Dream Walkers is charged with entering someone’s dreams to steal a secret. What’s interesting and known to those that have seen this movie is that you can enter a dream within a dream. So, they enter a waking person’s dream, and then enter the dream of someone within that dream.
This sort of dream within a dream concept one-ups my childhood ideas of the power but not by much since this movie requires you hooking up physically to some machine with the person who’s dream you’ll enter and my version is more of a psychic power that can be done at a distance.
Love’s blind Ensnare #
The leap of faith required in love is astounding. It’s like believing. You either do or you don’t…. leap…. or believe… or neither. You cannot be half in or half out with this thing. There are some games you cannot play unless you’re all in.
Hugs From Afar #
Just like the dream traveling, it would be nice to be able to hug someone from afar even if you’re not there. I’m sure anyone can relate. Though I’m sure that psychic hugs would lead to some new level of harassment. Maybe it’s for the best that psychic hugs don’t exist or that I at least am incapable of them.
In a way, and thinking about it in hindsight, I was using this poem to send hugs from afar knowing that parts of me would burn up in the act. What would be left of me after burning up? The better parts? The best parts? The heroic parts?
I hope it is all of those.
A Game One Doesn’t Just Play #
Conceptualizing life as a game seems to be a motivating thing for me to do. Many people will have trouble refuting that games are a necessary part of childhood development, but for some reason when I let people in on the secret that I will think of life as a game, even as an adult, to make the mundane more exciting, they get a strange look in their eyes. It’s as if they’ve decided I’m crazier than they thought.
Life is serious to most, though, and to me it is as well, 99% of the time. I draw upon Sword Art Online here (an anime) for the final line in both a grim way and a funny way.
I want it to come across in the same manner and style of a Court Jester delivering the grimmest news to the royal court while still managing to smile.
This is a very serious game we’re playing, my king.
Your laugh is as much a show as your tears.
An audience with no eyes is there for both your sufferings and your joys.
Now go, don’t forget to have fun through it all.
A Heart that Hurt #
Even though the elements I mentioned above all played a part in inspiring certain pieces of the poem the core impulse that made me write it was heartbreak. I’m actually ashamed to say that because heartbreak, to me, seems like a cheap currency to use to buy writing. Why can’t I write this when I’m feeling fine? But that’s how this one went and it happened late one night when it felt like those around me were away in dream.
As I reread my own poem I don’t know if it’s positive or negative. At times it’s one and at times the other, and still other times it’s a mix of both; one sentence will evoke an up and then next evokes a down. I reflect back on when I wrote it and realize it was written with both positive and negative emotion; I think it’s best it remains that way.