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Friday, March 22, 2024

Dream Poems

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit radiant Rose at Imagine the Possibilities for Roundup.

This week I started teaching Haiku workshops for Friends of the Locust Fork River. (For the first time ever, their annual contest will include poetry!) And since poetry is for all ages, I shared time this week at our local Senior Center and also with 7th and 9th grade biology students at Locust Fork High School. I've got a couple more sessions in the coming weeks.Yay!

Something I've been thinking about lately is how poetry is tied to dreams. I have oft shared the book From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction by Robert Olen Butler. (Sure, the subtitle says "fiction" but the book applies to poetry as well!) And I myself have written and shared quite a few dream poems here at Live Your Poem:

A Dream of Sheep

What Tiger Dreams

Writing Down a Dream

This Poem is a Dream

A Dream of Yellow

A Dream of Red

Garden Rabbit's Dream

Dream with Three Hearts

A Dream of Wheat

October Dreams

A Dream of Winter

Fishing in Spring (Life is But a Dream)

And today for this week's installment of ArtSpeak: FOLK ART, I've got a (dreamy) piece by Joseph Garlock, who was a Russian immigrant-turned-American-artist. Also, while researching for this poem, I found this great article on shepherding (written by a shepherd). Thanks so much for reading!



So Says the Shepherd of Dreams

When sheep
descend from sky
desert throws bouquets
at their feet

and prickly cacti
(usually so solemn)
lift their arms
welcome, welcome!

- Irene Latham

16 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful image of the cacti lifting their arms in welcome. You are busy, Irene!

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  2. A welcome from prickly friends is always extra special. :)

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  3. "The Shepherd of Dreams" <3 Thank you for sharing poetry joy with young and old! xo

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  4. The cacti do look like they're welcoming the sheep with their arms. Charming poem, lovely art. What a treat, thanks!

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  5. I love that welcome image, too, Irene. The poem & art is lovely. I enlarged it & took a nice, long look. Time to welcome some color back into our worlds!

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  6. I love the idea of a shepherd for my sheep-dreams!

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  7. I love your dreamy desert, Irene! How those sheep must love all the spring bouquets!

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  8. Irene, I so love the idea of the cactus throwing bouquets at the sheep's feet. The Haiku workshop sound great, and yes to poetry for all ages. That is a lot of dream poems you have shared. Thank you!

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  9. I love the way your mind works, Irene! "When sheep descend from the sky." You think so creatively and paint stories with such apparent ease.

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  10. Ohhhh I love that last stanza! This poem hits home for me. Thank you for sharing!

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  11. Oh I love the dreaminess of this poem, and the idea of the cactus lifting their arms in welcome. And well done on your efforts inspiring other poets through your workshops.

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  12. "welcome, welcome" is such an embrace from the desert. Wonderful dream poem. Thanks for the book tip, too!

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  13. Oh, this is such a wonderful image, Irene. Thank you!

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  14. There are so many unlikely yet matter-of-fact aspects here--just as in dreams things are wild nonsense balanced in ways that could not be otherwise--sheep descending from the sky to the desert, for example. I'm taken.

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  15. Irene, dream poems sound so soothing and I like yours. I sent you three image poems for your project. I will send more when I have time to do so. Have a wonderful day.

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  16. I love reading your dream poems and I often write about my dreams, too. And look at that -- it's letting me comment as myself again! :-D

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