Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Dimension of Dreams” by: rob kistner © 10/24/24
Between wakefulness
and rem
there is a place
a dimension that I know
a dimension that I roam
that dimension
the neuralspace of dreams
of fantasy
of illusion
where imagination roams
a place where poetry lurks
it is here I pursue
the fleeting
elusive
words
le verset tient mon âme
down the street of the sky
here night walks
scattering poems
inspired dreams of truth
enthralling dreams of wonder
night releases the dreams
the poems
from unclenched
open hands of truth
hands of enchantment
Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “FeyLuna”
by: rob kistner © 10/24/24
to be blessed
in love’s wellspring
by fey luna
with the aura
of magic
and enlightenment
so the winds of vision
can realize this night
to collect them
lifting them to full promise
to poems of clarity
of open mind
of true heart
of steeled spirit
meant to embrace
meant to inspire
meant to enchant
and to be more
still
le verset tient mon âme
so listen
think wondrous thoughts
the hours now rise
putting off stars
casting spells
and it is dawn
awake now…
in the street of the sky
light walks
moving in a sound of silence
scattering poems anew
listen…
be ready
Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Street of the Sky”
by: rob kistner © 10/24/24
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rob kistner © 2024
Poetry at:d’Verse
Poetry at:Poets & Storytellers
I love that period between being awake and asleep… it can be very meditative to be there.
As do I Björn. As I have gotten older I have learned to sustain, even retain some conscious awareness when I enter the space. My process is more effective as I journey to the sleep stage, rather than that period returning to wakefulness. But as my insomnia has increased, I have discovered how to mine both periods. Not always positive results. Sometimes the doors I open in that state can be disquieting. But always fascinating.
Oh, Rob, I know that place where poetry lurks!
Yes Kim, as do I. I have learned that more than creating poetry, I refine the poetry that shows up for me. Sometimes I go in search of it, sometimes it shows up as a surprise… as if it was searching for me. I just had relaxed my mind — and there it was, but always it requires refinement. For me, I have no finished poems. They are always fair game to be edited, or be dismantled into several poems, or a section to be taken like a cutting to sprout a brand new poem. They are never “finished”. Always in flux of process, leaving a number of additional poems in their wake.
I love this attitude!
I am pleased this resonated for you Rosemary. As cranky or as dark as I can be, there is still a mysterious/romantic strand that runs through my core that occasionally gets a vibration stirred, and my writing heads in this direction. Truth buried in fantasy… 🙂
So many wonderful lines ~~ my favorite is “into the street of the sky
light walks” ~~ sigh.
Thank you Helen. That is a line that I discovered/uncovered in one of my neuralspace journeys. I always write down any lines that captivated me when I return from the space. Been doing it for years now, ever since I was taught how to self-hypnotize as an aid with my insomnia. I have a couple dozen I feel worthwhile stored on my iPad. Many of the lines become the opening lines for my poems. They often act as inspiration. I believe that an effective opening line can break writers block. Thankfully, that condition is not something I encounter frequently. I learned in a writers workshop at Canon Beach Oregon that to conquer writers block — just write, anything. I use these lines I have mined over the years to be that “anything” line that I use to prime the ‘word pump’. I discovered at that Canon Beach workshop, that I had been using the technique during for the years that I had written songs for my bands. In the pop/rock lyrics writing world they are referred to as “hooks” — that is the line that ear-worm’s the song into your brain.
Love that you shared the Canon Beach experience, I have traveled there once and enjoyed it immensely. I like choosing different Oregon “beach scenes” to keep things interesting. Do you still self hypnotize? I am not certain ‘what I do’ would be considered neural space journeying’ but it’s how I come up with lines I enter into a huge database of my “for future poetry” doc and refer to often. Happy Sunday.
Hi Helen … when Kathy and I moved to Oregon, Canon Beach was more like an semi artist’s haven, or a place with a known “local” vibe. Kath first learned of the place when she was playing basketball at the University of Idaho. It was a place her college group used to trek to for some beach and art days — when there were breaks in their schedule. She said it was very “local low profile” then. Plenty of places to park. Hip shops and individuals. My wife used her basketball scholarship to study fiber-art at UofI, under tye tutelage of a master hand weaver, which Kath became also. We haven’t been there to CB in over 10 years, but our friends from Portland tell us it is now a ‘kitschy’ tourist knot. No place to park, crowded sidewalks, and lotsa low-qual imports posturing as art. The little artist haven is gone. Sad, because we loved the place. It was a wonderful mental and soulful escape that we could get too in under a couple hours, from where we lived in the foothills outside P-town. We went frequently. From the reports from our friends, we have never gone back in a decade. From where we now live in Seatle, it would be a 5 hour drive. But there was a time a quarter of a century ago, when it was magical.
When I was learning self-hypnosis, these are the books my mentor directed me to. They were interesting to me, and did help me hone the skill. I’ve taken from them what helped me and bypassed the stuff that started down an academical rabbit-hole — they these particular books are informationally accessible and helpful. Read this first book before taking the journey in.
1. “Self-Hypnosis Revolution” by Forbes Robbins Blair — This is the book I would start with. It is for the early curious. Offers straightforward techniques for achieving self-hypnosis without being an expert.
2. “The New Self-Hypnosis” by Dr. A. E. van Vogt — covers the theory and practice of self-hypnosis. i
Good tips for effective self-hypnosis techniques, emphasizing self-guided relaxation & self-improvement.
3. “Hypnosis for Beginners: Reach New Levels of Awareness & Achievement” by William W. Hewitt — good read for me when I was starting out. It provides guidance in inducing self-hypnosis for self-improvement.
4. “Self-Hypnosis and Subliminal Technology: A How-To Guide for Personal-Empowerment Tools You Can Use Anywhere!” by Eldon Taylor and Steve G. Jones — goes beyond traditional self-hypnosis.
I think dreaming and waking are inextricably linked and one cannot live without the other. That top quote is great and your articulation of it in your poem speaks its truth. It seems to me that as my waking world calms down my dreaming world has become much more active. I also like the idea of harvesting poems in dreamland. Hope you are enjoying your Friday, Rob.
Thank you Lisa… 🙂 I got 10 hours of sleep last night. Still exhausted, but a little less… so hoping for a good Friday. As my memory is less sharp, and I nod in and out all day, I have a number of these waking dream periods. It used to worry me, but now I just say fuckit — it is what it is, I am who I am. But that neuralspace, as I am calling it, does fascinate me now more than worrying me.
This is lovely,Rob. I love how your inspiration shows up. Mine comes wandering out of my mouth before I realize what is going on. Lately, I’ve taken to jotting them down.
Really enjoyed this.
Pat
You must dot them down if you don’t want to forever lose those unexpected pearls. They are gifts from another plane of consciousness. Recalling them from memory is very inefficient. They are like gorgeous sunsets, fleeting and ethereal. There will be other sunsets, but the mind-blowing spectacular ones are rare. I learned that long ago.
Perfectly described Rob, that half waking moment when random phrases emerge…well done..JIM
Thank you Jim… 🙂
I enjoy that space, too, Rob.
It’s a magical space of discovery and creativity… 🙂
Ah Rob, this is delightful. I love the place from whence your poetry comes.
Thank you Robbie… 🙂
Oops, sorry Rob. I’m reading all the poems one after another so I got my names muddled.
Don’t feel bad Robbie. I am 77 and more than names get muddled for me… 😉
Your written words cast us into a sea of enchantment and the “Sound of Silence” takes us even further there.
Thank you for visiting and reading. Hope you enjoyed the journey Penelope… 🙂
That is the place where poetry lurks!! Well said. It’s a place for creative thoughts to jump into our consciousness. It’s why (and I believe) it’s been said we should never trash anything we get up in the middle of the night to write.
Absolutely Yvonne. That is when the magical “word-gifts” come — when we are totally relaxed, and not blocking creativity with too much scheming. I learned years ago to shelf-hypnotize as a way to manage my insomnia, but those “journeys in” have given me some excellent creative rewards. I go there when I have writers block, am when Imam creating my Serenity Totems. Nowadays it also helps me with anxiety.
How beautiful and how true!
Thank you so much Rosemary… 🙂
scattering poems about…beautiful concept.
night releases the dreams
the poems
from unclenched
open hands of truth
hands of enchantment
That stanza was stunning
Great verse about the twilight zone……
Thank you very much Ain. I enjoy exploring that state of awareness. Much to be discovered there. And like Lewis Carroll wisely comprehended — “a dream is not reality, but whose to say which is which”. In the 60’s & 70’s I did natural psychedelics of several types, on more than one occasion, to proactively explore the inner landscape of my mind. Precisely where that metaphysical plane lies conceptually, or from where it originates spiritually, fascinates the fuck out of me. Believe me, it was powerfully spiritual, and had nothing to do with anything religious, nor ism-esque. I have read and discussed the molecular and compositional aspects of psychedelics, both natural and manmade, so I have reasonable layman’s grasp of the triggering substances — but that for me, offers no explanation nor understanding of from where that realm of inner journey manifests, once that door in the mind is open. I realize I probably sound like just an old hippie, and I do not espouse the use of psychedelics — all I can say is what I experienced was not a dream, most of the time was not chaotic, and were ideas and awarenesses that came from place(s) and/or experiences that I had never had prior — to my knowledge st tha time. I stopped the exploring in my 40’s because it was at times exhausting emotionally and even physically — difficult to endure. But it never exhausted me mentally, and left me with a cornucopia of insights and concepts that still hold resonance for me. Not easily shared because they arise for a plane of personal comprehension that would require an explanation of such depth and complexity, that it begins moving into a fractal-like cognition. I no longer share any experiential detail regarding that period of my life. But its impact still abides in me in ways, even to this day, that spark levels of creativity and insight, that I am quite certain I would never have been able to originate or facilitate, had I never have opened myself to the exploration. I will never regret it, and again, I am not recommending it here. I did a reasonably sized body of research beforehand, and was monitored by others who understood the undertaking. For me it was not recreational, and I ingested only pure, uncut ingredients — but… WOW!
Liminal consciousness, a fine place to look for poems…
Yes Priscilla, essentially. And to consciously hold and sustain awareness in that state when I was younger, required that I studied a bit to grasp the practice, and that I prepare before each sojourn. I used to be able to go there for reasonable periods of time naturally. For longer immersion I imbibed triggering ingredients. Now that I am older, I can still reach the plane, but not as quickly nor deeply — and sustain is difficult. It is owing to my declining state of health. But I can and do go there occasionally, but only in a natural way of relaxed breathing and meditation, touching just a truncated essence of the discipline. I do so to inspire my writing and art if I find myself stuck. I use no ingested ingredients, nor have I for several decades.
I love it, Rob. That space in the early hours of our dreams and fantasies preparing us for the day to come and letting go of anxieties and fear is the space your are describing so well.
Wonderful mysterious space Dwight… 🙂
ah. that realm is mostly closed to me these days. but it’s good to remember it still exists, somewhere in the aether
Wonderful place… 🙂
…..where poetry lurks. Who can help but feel poetry beneath the light of the moon?
Yes, Margaret, It radiates from luna… 🙂
“in the street of the sky
light walks
moving in a sound of silence
scattering poems anew”
I love this!
Thank you Sara. It felt special when it came to me Sara… 🙂