Nightmare's Nemesis

With darkness descending and the stars overhead,

I stay to the path, and plunge on ahead.

A root trips me up and I flounder in space,

With no nearby purchase, a thorn tears my face.

I pick myself up and brusquely brush off the snow,

And onward I trudge toward a far, distant glow.

My objective is there, along an unbeaten course;

Something guides me - a strange, unseen force.

I look at the mountain - it's too high to climb!

I'm defeated already with that thought in my mind.

The trail seemed so simple as I left on this track,

But time now stands still; must go on, can't go back.

They took in my visage; yes a ripe, easy mark,

With their arrogant pride, they missed my deep inner spark.

A spark for survival, a mad race to the end;

I'll fight tooth and nail is the message I send.

I stop, aspirate, with lungs burned by cold,

My breath's smoky vapor trapped by winter's harsh hold.

I feel my strength ebbing, but I refuse to slow down,

For time's a key factor, if my memory's sound.

Thorns tear my clothes; damn it, I'm lost!

But I have to go continue, regardless the cost.

An eerie green glow ignites the black sky.

I shiver with fright as owls scream by!

My eyes open wide and I gasp out in horror!

A beast has appeared, possessing great power.

Strange armor guards its body, through to powerful talons.

That now reach for me - I'm not up to this challenge!

I wake up in terror, my scream rents the night.

A HAND ON MY ARM! - "Everything is all right."

The voice of my wife breaks through the fear,

I begin to relax just feeling she's near.

Her hand strokes my face, brushes tears from my eye,

And my arms go around her with a satisfied sigh.

Gentle words, feather touches, before finally we kissed.

We caressed, shared our love, through the dawn's early mist.

Creativity Quick Tip

Weave a Little Dream Magick

Throughout our lives, we encounter problems and difficulties. It seems the more we try to find a solution, the more illusive it becomes. How often have you heard somebody say, "Well, sleep on it. Things will look different in the morning"? Similarly, as writers we've all experienced epiphanies - an amazing idea for a story, article or poem - but fail to write it down and end up forgetting it totally. While these two events may seem unrelated, they are, in fact, very closely related.

Dreams, imagination, creativity, visualization - these are all right brain activities. While this part of our brain is excellent for these purposes, it is our left brain that is logical and organized and responsible for memory. Books on dream interpretation will stress heavily the necessity of writing our dreams down, as soon as we wake up, because our right brain does not retain this information for very long.

As it applies to us, as writers, dreams can be a very rich source of practical information, messages from the higher planes and even solutions to our writing block problems. It is ironic that, in searching for a creative solution, we often try to apply logic and come up empty. While I refer to the following tool as "Dream Magick", one can also consider it "Dream Programming" and it can be very effective - once we understand a few simple aspects of this method.

The most important of these considerations is that our dreams are never as simple as they may seem, when we can remember them. They are filled with symbols and pantomimes that are unique to the individual. Death, for instance, may shock and cause fear but in most cases, it is merely a symbol of impending change in one's life. There are other considerations, chiefly that nobody has lived our life or had exactly the same experiences as we have had. Dream dictionaries are great to use as a guideline but if you really want to find out why you had that nightmare about Aunt Ethel, you have to examine the symbols, understand what they mean to us as individuals and take a close look at what is transpiring in our life, at the time. I've detailed the tool below, as I use it - on a very regular basis - but it's important that you find a means that you are comfortable with. Keep reading and you'll quickly understand why I mention this.

Simple Method: I'm stuck on how to advance the plot in a story I have spent considerable time in writing. Sitting, and sometimes laying down before I go to sleep, I explain the situation to my guides and simply ask them for some clarity about the problem. I request that they send me a solution, while I dream, and that they help me to remember when I wake up. Typically, after I've explained what I need assistance with, I say, "Please show me the solution on how to proceed with this story and help me to remember when I return to this physical body and awake. Thank you for listening and for granting my request." And then I sleep. (One can be as simplistic or comprehensive as you'd like in your explanation.)

You can make your request to the Creator/God/Goddess/Universe - what ever you are comfortable with. What's interesting is that you will not always wake up with total or even partial clarity and will instantly assume it didn't work. This is a faulty assumption and I can firmly attest to that. Depending on how we receive messages, we may not get that "crystal clear" solution. If we don't, it's essential that we pay very close attention to our intuition or "gut feelings" throughout the day. If you feel strangely drawn to maybe take a new route to work, turn on the TV at a specific time, pop by the library, eat lunch at a different restaurant or even give an old friend a call, it is essential that you follow through. There is something in that simple act or connection that is going to assist you.

Too often, when people make requests of the Creator or their guides, they mistakenly assume that they can just sit back and the answer is going to land in their laps. We still have to do the work - and that means we have to follow up on those little flashes of intuition that we all receive from our guides. According to Howard Wimer, Founder of Inner Expansion, we all receive between 80 and 90 hunches in a single day! If we can learn to harness our ability to have these hunches directed towards a specific problem, that's a LOT of direction - but we need to take action.

Consider it this way: Would you allow somebody else to write their own chapter in the novel that you've spent considerable time putting together? Not likely. As writers, part of the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment comes from the effort and research we put into our writing projects.

Ask for assistance, write down any images or symbols you can recall on waking and examine how they relate to you or your difficulty. And always be prepared to accept these messages as being very real help from a higher plane. The more you work with Dream Magick, the easier it will be for you to rid yourself of that darned writer's block - any time.