Dear Journal:
     The poem below was seen in a  picturegraph and  read
to me in a dream. The poem was seen  as a color painting
on a wood block with only a couple of words written out.
"Path" was a curving trail, "trod" was  a  set of  footprints,
and  "my cup may overflow"  was  a spring  flowing into a
stream then into a river and out into the ocean.

     I am that I am
     As a man that I am.
     I have a path and an end.
     Be twix now and then
     Down the road I'll trod
     To the end.

     That my cup may overflow
     And bless the earth with its life
     And goodness and mercy flow
     To the ends of the earth.
        (Signed) I am

     A couple of weeks later I heard another verse in a
dream but I couldn't get it down.
                    Hugh Barber, Anchorage, Alaska

Dreams and Poems

  Resource:  Do You Dream? by Tony Crisp.  (Dutton, 1972)

     Mr. Crisp  gives  some  examples of  poems that were
dreamed  directly, but  explains  that  one can also create
poems  from  any  dream. Yet,  he  cautions,  it  is best to
approach the task not as a poet,  but as someone trying to
gain consciousness and  a  greater  awareness  of oneself
by   working  creatively  with   the  dream.  When  writing
poetry from a dream, it is  not necessary  to stick  to  the
dream's  story or  details. But  it is important to tune into
the feelings in the dream, and then  to allow the poem  to
grow  from  other  images  and    thoughts  that  may  also
come to mind. The poem  can  then  make  the  transition
between the raw feelings in  the dream and understanding.
The  poem  may   also  interpret  the  dream   by  bringing
consciousness to it.

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