Between red death and radiant desire
With not one sound of triumph or of warning
Stands the great sentry on the Bridge of Fire.
O transient soul, thy thought with dreams adorning,
Cast down the laurel, and unstring the lyre:
the wheels of Time are turning, turning, turning,
The slow stream channels deep and doth not tire.
Gods on their bridge above
Whispering lies and love
Shall mock your passage down the sunless river
Which, rolling all it streams,
shall take you, king of dreams,
-Unthroned and unapproachable for ever-
To were the kings who dreamed of old
Whiten in habitations monumental cold.
James Elroy Flecker, 1884-1915.
I am impressed by how detailed dreams can be. We can read a book, watch TV, surf net. Sometimes we can conciously move, feel, smell, touch, hear. And yet sometimes, we are just audiences in our dreams.
Ever dreamt that you are dreaming? Yeah, nested dreams. Hah. And when you 'wake up' in the dream, you want to go back cuz you are doing something possible only in dreams. Perhaps it is our inner desire to do so. Are we really still dreaming or awake with eyes closed and in deep thoughts. The line between imagination and dreaming becomes blur at that moment. Surreal.
But why is there a difference to begin with? It is all that details! Mostly things we see for the first time. Who wrote that book? Who created that webpage? Who composed that song? Who painted the sky? It is difficult to believe that dreams are just a fragments of our imagination - everything in our head. Oh I admit I'm somehow influenced by Neil Gaiman's idea of The Dreaming in the Sandman, but I strongly feel that either dreams are indications that our minds are capable of much greater things or we are merely travellers in another world when we dream. Some supreme being with enomous capability or with many many helpers must have created this realm.
Our daily life have an influence in our dreams, sometimes. Even if it is something we had not paid attention to. I had a dream two nights ago about kayaking with some strangers. All, except me, donned life vests. No paddles. Our kayaks? Mattresses. The location? A room (could be mine) flooded with sea water and sand. The depth? ankle deep (judging from the height of the ceiling and the water surface, my common sense told me so). The link to the waking world? The twenty seconds or so footage on news I saw on the devastation Hurricane Katrina had made to New Orleans. It felt like going for kayaking but the image was really influenced by the disaster and loss of homes and lives. It is undeniable that I had played a great part in creating this dream with pieces of information collected during the waking times.
At this moment, I wish that it was really just a nightmare, and everything will be fine when they are back to the waking world. Let us take a minute of silence and pray for those who perished in this calamity.
Comments
You might want to view the above site for more info on dreams. But its quite deep and lengthy...