Dream Sequence poetry pamphlet


In the autumn of 2013, I put together a suite of six poems, mostly composed in the spring of 2004 under the influence of Keats, various translations of Ancient Chinese poetry, and my pedestrian readings of dream interpretations. The resulting sequence was never intended to be a serious exploration of dreams or the psychology or popular pseudo-science attached to them, but more a somewhat fun dip into those waters with some fancy imagery and open-ended fragments.

The heart's hidden theme, the buried beam,
the conscious mind's illogical extreme,
the spectral stream, the brain's coal seam,
the splintered scream, the hushed-up scheme,
the mutilated meme,
the dream.
Dreams are variously imagined as starlit carnivals of drowsy delights, and submerged motifs of the subconscious, and there is even a nod to those unremembered dreams now absorbing dust on cutting room floors.  The poems are mainly light hearted - in one I ponder the question Is a dream an incident? and suggest Perhaps they should send dreams bubble-wrapped, with helplines, but at certain points the sequence strays into darker territory, with the penultimate episode being a foray into the minds of criminals, beginning:
He thinks of the one he cannot have
and dreams of guns.

That fifth piece appeared in Inclement magazine in 2007, while the pamphlet's closing poem was published by Decanto four years earlier, ending the sequence on a wistfully romantic note.

Dream Sequence remains available via various library services, and from me directly. It is a very thin, stapled pamphlet more suited to selling individually at readings, than from the shelves of bookshops. I plan a reprint at some point, and will be sharing the some of the poems across various media in due course, maybe here.




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