Mostly they are garbage
— my dreams —
discarded litter left,
the pieces of remaining cloudless sky
from that jigsaw puzzle
I gave up upon.
But sometimes dreams are real
and tiptoe as my shadow
with their darkness into dawn.
Thus with autumn grows the gloom.
Puzzle of autumn by Salvador Dali
Back again from my hiatus. And what better start than to write Quadrille for De at dVerse. Quadrille is a poem of exactly 44 words including the word Dream. Join us all when the pub opens at 8 PM CET.
—
August 14, 2017
Welcome back! Intriguing quadrille. Different types of dreams, those most real ones do hold hands with the coming reality of autumn. Nicely done.
You and I both – ‘an hiatus’. Love your quadrille. I thought it was a dance – and it IS! I hope autumn dances and is not gloomy.
Welcome home. You’ve captured the enigmatic, abstract nature of dreams in your words.
Welcome back! May your dreams brighten!
Nice to see you back. “Mostly’ and ‘sometimes’ dreams are just that.
Very good…the floating, abstract, not quite graspable nature of. Some dreams….
welcome back… i often don’t remember my dreams in the mornings.. i often thinks it’s a collection of what happened throughout the day
You have a typo here: “I gave up upon.” ~Too many “ups.”
Autumn is my very favorite time of year; it makes me completely giddy. I’m sorry to hear it isn’t as pleasant for you. 😦
My favorite part of the poem is how the opening line works with the title. Garbage dreams could be pretty nice.
I also like this line: “discarded litter left” … It makes me think of trash on the ground, of course — but also, kitty litter … and then a litter of kitties (actually, that was the first thing I thought of). And I would much rather do a puzzle of kitties than a puzzle of clouds. Maybe that bit of a switch would fix your dreams.
I thought that “giving up” could be used also with the preposition upon (it’s not a second up)… and it was intentional and not a typo… 🙂
Sorry. I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on. 🙂
No problem… never keep your mouth shut. —- and no reason to be sorry.
Welcome back! Missed you at dVerse. The depictions of your dreams as garbage, discarded litter and forsaken jigsaw puzzles is a really interesting perspective. Also the real ones associated with Autumn. Great quadrille!
Dreams and Dali go hand in hand, don’t they and the jigsaw puzzle is an apt metaphor. So glad to have you back, Bjorn. I hope your time away was perfect.
“But sometimes dreams are real
and tiptoe as my shadow” — I love this. I can see them. Sneaky little suckers. 😉
Welcome back Bjorn !!! There are shadows and gloom in those dreams ~ But if we can tiptoe to dawn, there is hope ~
Welcome back, Bjorn! We missed you. And what a great Quadrille to return with.I love those lines:
‘…tiptoe as my shadow
with their darkness into dawn.
Thus with autumn grows the gloom’.
Welcome back! My dreams are so jumbled now they are like a mix kids make nowadays out of Elmer’s glue and baking soda…slime. I never had the patience for jigsaw puzzles. I love how your real dreams are associated with fall –
Great to see you back Bjorn .. and that you’ve not lost your touch! A gem of a poem there – love the ‘tiptoe as my shadow’. Great image.
Welcome back. “But sometimes dreams are real
and tiptoe as my shadow
with their darkness into dawn” these are the haunting ones…where you aren’t really sure if they were real…
I love the image of litter blowing around, it does capture the idea of those dreams that just seem to drift out of your head once morning comes.
Welcome back Björn and I love the different feel you give your dreams, especially ‘sometimes dreams are real and tiptoe as my shadow’
I liked the description of dreams real as shadows in the dawn.
Mostly melancholy, these dreams, and a little foreboding. Winter is coming…
Love the forewarning the threatening of gloom in the close. Love it all in fact!
Anna :o]
Ah… I had a lucky life. Your words drove that home.
So good to see you back
Welcome back, Bjorn!
OOPS! Forgot to say how much I appreciated your poem. I love those that tiptoe into dawn!
Oh, yes. it is good to be comforted by your incredible poetics yet again. How intuitive of me to contact you yesterday. Your second stanza is killer, all stand alone & majestic. Our dream of America has been polluted, and poets are filled with alacrity & anger.
Happy to see you back, Bjorn. As Glenn says above, your second stanza truly is a killer, stands alone beautifully.
Welcome back to the lounge! “the pieces of remaining cloudless sky from that jigsaw puzzle I gave up upon.” Jigsaw dreams, made up from the residue of your day. That speaks to me as well. They only ocassionially make sense 😕
First, welcome back you have been missed. Please don’t give up on the jigsaw puzzle, all those pieces of the dreamscape interlock to something in the waking life, but then what is the waking life?
I love the image of dreaming about unplaced puzzle pieces…pairing with the Salvador Dali painting makes the poem even more fascinating.
Great write, Bjorn! The first stanza, especially, resonates a lot to me.
oh those first few lines reverberates. reverberates. how i can relate.
Welcome back, Bjorn!❤️ This is an exceptionally powerful poem and I love how you have captured the abstract and intriguing nature of one’s dream! Beautifully executed! ❤️
“….tiptoe ….with my darkness into dawn….” How lovely this is! So nice to see you back, Bjorn. I missed you. Hope your camping adventures were wonderful and you are replenished.
The sky is the first part of the jigsaw I solve.. picking up the blues and whites..and then I do end up having pieces remaining! That image is just brilliant…
Welcome, back I missed you. A lovely poem.
Sometimes I read a poem which so perfectly describes my own experience that I want to sigh, or shout, at the wondrous power of words. This is just such a time.
the hiatus has refreshed you it seems – I love the structure of your poem and of course the golden images
Dark dreams, abstract and cloudy…your poem fits my day!
Welcome back! Somehow I can never imagine that your dreams would be discarded as litter … but pieces of a jig saw puzzle, yes. Awake dreams? Asleep dreams? Sometimes we struggle to remember them, achieve them. Ah…you’ve got me thinking now…
Welcome back Bjorn, perfect place to start again, dreams, real and surreal
much love…
Welcome Back! And in style.
dreams – jigsaw puzzle – they often are that with big wide open holes – and I always lose pieces. When I was a child, my dreams were certainly different – I wish I could go back to them.
Welcome back!
Lovely personification of dream. The second stanza is ominous.
I rarely dream when I sleep… My wide eyed dreaming I suppose is jigsaw puzzled enough
Yes, dreams are like that. Nicely done, B.
I love “sometimes dreams are real
and tiptoe as my shadow.” Dreams are a sort of shadow world–and here creeping into autumn. Nicely done.
And we can tell the difference, when we collect all the good pieces, we become collectors of treasures.
Great job with the form, Bjorn, and good to see you back.
As we try to piece together shards of dreams, what an apt image of a jigsaw.
Sorry that autumn brings you gloom. It is my favourite time of the year. Perhaps it’s a function of geography and longitude/latitude.
Dreams that we don’t give up on, do tiptoe beside us into the unknown future. ❤
This is just a really fine little piece of writing. I fell in love with the beginning and then: the close … well, the whole thing, really, strikes an extraordinary chord. .
I’ve been gone so much this summer myself (for many reasons it wasn’t planned) that I feel like I’m starting over again.
I really like this poem of yours, Bjorn. Simple and elegant. The jigsaw idea is wonderful I enjoyed this one. The artwork is nice with it.