Turn Your Dream Into a Poem, Part 2

With the notes from your dream in front of you, read them over and pick out any particular points you wish to emphasize in your poem. What you want to do is provide some type of lead-in at the beginning of your poem that will tell the reader this is based on a dream that you had. Poems based on dreams tend to have an ethereal quality to them which allows readers to experience and analyze what your dream may hold for you in terms of significance. As an example, see a segment from my poem below titled “The Perfect Real Estate” which appeared in the first issue of Aquapolis, June 2007:

The Perfect Real Estate

Heat coming out of the ground
wayward feet searching for the
right planet to land on
hopscotch from star to star
which family is the right one to join

not the one where your life
is behind your back
not the one where you
are significantly different
not the one where
they walk on their hands
all day long.

In this poem I draw from my own background experience which is integrated into the dream. After your lead-in is written down - and it can be anything from something to a mundane activity like going to the post office, to seeing a new work of art - you are ready to compose your poem. Once you integrate the notes from your dream, you want to establish continuity. This will not only keep your reader wanting to continue reading the poem, but also provide a tight story, regardless of how many elements of your dream are included. Since dreams in themselves tend to have a fantasy like quality to them, do not worry if your poem starts to seem unrealistic once you have composed it and read it over. Check your spelling for errors. Include punctuation where necessary, although you can include it in spots if you want to go the experimental route. If you wish, you can also include within the poem the actual date of your dream. Be creative and keep a record of your work so you can refer back to when you wrote it.

The Perfect Real Estate, copyrighted by Julie Kovacs, 2007.