I'm gonna take a stab at some interpretation here, because there are layers here that are hard to dig through, but there's a meaningful undercurrent that's engaging me.
"Out of nothing anything can happen
Something usually leads to something"
Nothing can lead to anything, but something just leads to boring old something else.
"Black and white cue cards, heavily
rotated, each with the next thought’s
location, the next fertile coordinate"
Lost mentally in what we know and think, flitting so quickly between clear thoughts that their colors (black and white) merge (to gray) and we see indistinctly in our mind's eye.
" In the
garden there is a man, a different looking
man, a tree. I say don’t touch that stuff yet!
I’m not sure what it’s all for"
Shades of Eden, here. Perhaps the narrator does not know what the stuff's for because he hasn't "touched" that tree.
I like the dreamy quality, the recursion from the very beginning, and the contemplative, lightly yearning attitude.
These interpretations are all very valid if not eerily spot on. Thank you Narcisse!
I will add that the clue is in the name on this one. I wondered if god was once a singular creature like this. Bored of waking life, trying to delay it by spending more and more time in his dreams. You could create a whole world if you pushed the dial far enough, and then of that world you'd be at least lucidly in charge
But then as soon as those creatures you've invented have autonomy WOOSH - off they go. I'm not sure what it's all for! laments the idea that spirituality (sexuality as well) has been given to man as a birthright but man itself has chosen to never fully understand it, or pervert it
Thanks again for stopping in I hope to see you around here more often!
Also, I keep thinking of the primordial waters in the chaotic Earth that existed before God's creative actions in the priestly account. In the poem, we have the narrator dreaming of dreaming, lost in layers, the black and white whizzing by indistinctly such that things become gray, there is a darkness covering the face of the deep that the narrator perhaps is not even lucidly aware of as he builds on top of previously existing dream layers until it all gets away from him.
And since Genesis 2 is older than Genesis 1, it could plausibly be an even deeper dream layer that's going on while the narrator is concerned with the passing of the days and nights during the priestly account, and he's too preoccupied to pay attention to the development of spirituality, sexuality, rebellion, self-actualization, deception, awakening, etc. until it's too late. This could also be why he recognizes what a man is, because he's in the priestly layer, forming man, but the older layer already has a man and woman formed and treading the grass of the garden.
Of course, that doesn't really work, since in the priestly account, God seems to make man and woman at the same time, but perhaps he recognizes man because man is made in God's image. Alternatively, there's a midrash that says that after God proposes making man to the Divine Council, "While the ministering angels were busy deliberating with one another and engaging with one another, the Holy One blessed be He created him. He said to them: ‘Why are you deliberating? Man has already been created.’" Another neat parallel with how creation can happen under one's nose--maybe the narrator is like an angel in his distraction here.
With the possible layers being infinite, the different religious traditions, however mutually incompatible they might seem, could all describe an aspect of this iterative creation. There's ex nihilo, ex materia, ex deo, continua, etc. all acting and interacting in different layers, blurrily distinguished in the way the dreaming brain is content to wander from experience to experience without demanding continuity. The same story can be told in different ways, or repeated, or repeated with slight alterations, or blatantly contradicted, and the story of this multilayered creation goes on, never bowing under the weight of the inconsistencies, its coherence built out of a million little incoherences bundled together and embraced as one.
I'm aware I'm reading all kinds of things into this that were likely not intended, but you can't stop me! :)
Now "Out of nothing anything can happen" hits completely differently--it sounds like the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (Gerhard May has a monograph about that for deeper reading). The composer John Cage once said that every something is an echo of nothing. Kyle Gann wrote an interesting microtonal piano composition called "Echoes of Nothing" based on that quote.
The day and night imagery echoes the division of creation into periods of one day and one night in the priestly creation account.
And now the two "men" in the garden are obviously Adam and Eve--before, I thought it was Adam and God. And a non-omniscient God working his way through dreamed inventions makes much better sense of a whole lot of these famous stories.
"each like asking for more love" is so sad now. There's only so lucidly one can dream, and when billions and billions are asking for hope, purpose, love...
Only at an amateur level but very interested. As a kid I had a lot of nightmares and I remember praying for this liminal space just to keep them away. Without knowing what I was doing perhaps I was practicing
I’m a big believer in channeled writing and regressive hypnotherapy. Fascinated by anything in that realm you as well?
Yes. I have a practice where I accidentally learned to do it, although I’m only successful maybe 20% of the times I try. It’s like an off shoot of a meditation practice, but done lying down. I recently learned it had a name and is studied by psychiatrist and neurologists. Sometimes I have visions but I always come out of it very refreshed.
That’s amazing L. I hope to continue working on these relationships in my own life. It takes courage
In my opinion these practices are our birthright but I fear they’ve been taken from us or diluted by religion and other limiting institutions…
The tools of exploration and healing are available to us every time we slow down and limit distractions. The prophets all had one message - you’re god, we’re all god! I think this is what they meant.
my dream was different but this one’s pretty good, too
thank you my friend
I really enjoyed reading this! :) thanks for sharing
Awesome Allegra thanks for reading :)
Ohhhhhh put this in my veins. This is awesome !!!!!
"The next fertile coordinate" 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Love it.
Ooo I really like this. Nicely done.
Thank you so much the Moon!!
I'm gonna take a stab at some interpretation here, because there are layers here that are hard to dig through, but there's a meaningful undercurrent that's engaging me.
"Out of nothing anything can happen
Something usually leads to something"
Nothing can lead to anything, but something just leads to boring old something else.
"Black and white cue cards, heavily
rotated, each with the next thought’s
location, the next fertile coordinate"
Lost mentally in what we know and think, flitting so quickly between clear thoughts that their colors (black and white) merge (to gray) and we see indistinctly in our mind's eye.
" In the
garden there is a man, a different looking
man, a tree. I say don’t touch that stuff yet!
I’m not sure what it’s all for"
Shades of Eden, here. Perhaps the narrator does not know what the stuff's for because he hasn't "touched" that tree.
I like the dreamy quality, the recursion from the very beginning, and the contemplative, lightly yearning attitude.
These interpretations are all very valid if not eerily spot on. Thank you Narcisse!
I will add that the clue is in the name on this one. I wondered if god was once a singular creature like this. Bored of waking life, trying to delay it by spending more and more time in his dreams. You could create a whole world if you pushed the dial far enough, and then of that world you'd be at least lucidly in charge
But then as soon as those creatures you've invented have autonomy WOOSH - off they go. I'm not sure what it's all for! laments the idea that spirituality (sexuality as well) has been given to man as a birthright but man itself has chosen to never fully understand it, or pervert it
Thanks again for stopping in I hope to see you around here more often!
Also, I keep thinking of the primordial waters in the chaotic Earth that existed before God's creative actions in the priestly account. In the poem, we have the narrator dreaming of dreaming, lost in layers, the black and white whizzing by indistinctly such that things become gray, there is a darkness covering the face of the deep that the narrator perhaps is not even lucidly aware of as he builds on top of previously existing dream layers until it all gets away from him.
And since Genesis 2 is older than Genesis 1, it could plausibly be an even deeper dream layer that's going on while the narrator is concerned with the passing of the days and nights during the priestly account, and he's too preoccupied to pay attention to the development of spirituality, sexuality, rebellion, self-actualization, deception, awakening, etc. until it's too late. This could also be why he recognizes what a man is, because he's in the priestly layer, forming man, but the older layer already has a man and woman formed and treading the grass of the garden.
Of course, that doesn't really work, since in the priestly account, God seems to make man and woman at the same time, but perhaps he recognizes man because man is made in God's image. Alternatively, there's a midrash that says that after God proposes making man to the Divine Council, "While the ministering angels were busy deliberating with one another and engaging with one another, the Holy One blessed be He created him. He said to them: ‘Why are you deliberating? Man has already been created.’" Another neat parallel with how creation can happen under one's nose--maybe the narrator is like an angel in his distraction here.
With the possible layers being infinite, the different religious traditions, however mutually incompatible they might seem, could all describe an aspect of this iterative creation. There's ex nihilo, ex materia, ex deo, continua, etc. all acting and interacting in different layers, blurrily distinguished in the way the dreaming brain is content to wander from experience to experience without demanding continuity. The same story can be told in different ways, or repeated, or repeated with slight alterations, or blatantly contradicted, and the story of this multilayered creation goes on, never bowing under the weight of the inconsistencies, its coherence built out of a million little incoherences bundled together and embraced as one.
I'm aware I'm reading all kinds of things into this that were likely not intended, but you can't stop me! :)
I love the unintended consequences of poetry! Layer upon layer, climbing down the grey ladder.
I need to pay better attention to titles!
Now "Out of nothing anything can happen" hits completely differently--it sounds like the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (Gerhard May has a monograph about that for deeper reading). The composer John Cage once said that every something is an echo of nothing. Kyle Gann wrote an interesting microtonal piano composition called "Echoes of Nothing" based on that quote.
The day and night imagery echoes the division of creation into periods of one day and one night in the priestly creation account.
And now the two "men" in the garden are obviously Adam and Eve--before, I thought it was Adam and God. And a non-omniscient God working his way through dreamed inventions makes much better sense of a whole lot of these famous stories.
"each like asking for more love" is so sad now. There's only so lucidly one can dream, and when billions and billions are asking for hope, purpose, love...
I will always try to do something with a title. Huge piece of poetry real estate
“each like asking for more love. In the
garden there is a man, a different looking
man, a tree. I say don’t touch that stuff yet!
I’m not sure what it’s all for”
This gave me the stank face, straight fire
Thank you my friend. :)
Do you know about hypnogenic states? That’s what you are describing. That sweet spot between being awake and being asleep.
Only at an amateur level but very interested. As a kid I had a lot of nightmares and I remember praying for this liminal space just to keep them away. Without knowing what I was doing perhaps I was practicing
I’m a big believer in channeled writing and regressive hypnotherapy. Fascinated by anything in that realm you as well?
Yes. I have a practice where I accidentally learned to do it, although I’m only successful maybe 20% of the times I try. It’s like an off shoot of a meditation practice, but done lying down. I recently learned it had a name and is studied by psychiatrist and neurologists. Sometimes I have visions but I always come out of it very refreshed.
That’s amazing L. I hope to continue working on these relationships in my own life. It takes courage
In my opinion these practices are our birthright but I fear they’ve been taken from us or diluted by religion and other limiting institutions…
The tools of exploration and healing are available to us every time we slow down and limit distractions. The prophets all had one message - you’re god, we’re all god! I think this is what they meant.
This is my favorite of yours so far. All great work, but this is everything I wanted before I knew what it was I wanted from a poem.
Thank you CC! When picking a poem to start with Creation Story was the obvious choice. I’m fond of it as well <3