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BlueBlack Snake Dream
Blue banded blacksnake,
ouroboros needle
sewing earth to sky
in sea serpent
splashes,
fool, flower and forest
meticulously
quilted
to midnight mourning,
seaming flickering shrouds
for flame-hungry moths.
Blue banded blacksnake,
thread your oblivion,
sew the dream tight
tighter
on my eyes.
Blood-bracelet me
with your blue black coil
here where I sleep
seeing forever.
~October 2013
55 shed sea serpent scales for the g-man
Due to computer problems, this has all been done online, composed, illustrated and
typed--a first for me. I will visit as I can, but my pc is dying and if I
should not show, I will have to owe you one.
Process notes: I dreamed of this snake very vividly last night (--yes, I know, Freud, etc, but not exactly that way, I think--) and was amazed to find today that it was real, as I had no idea there actually was such a thing. It is called Lauticauda laticaudata, the blue-banded sea krait, and is native to the Indian Ocean, as well as around Taiwan, the Andaman Islands and other places.
Ouroboros: per wikipedia: "The Ouroboros or Uroboros...(..tail-devouring snake) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. [It] often symbolized self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself...[or] which operates in cycles that begin anew as soon as they end"
Photo: By Andrepiazza (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
well, I'd imagine that snakes favor hedges ~
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful, I can see that snake stitching dream images together like patchwork. Love this.
ReplyDeleteThey need to save your brain just like they did with Einstein! That'l keep those empirical studying Mofo's in a quandary for years!
ReplyDeleteLoved your visually stunning and tormented 55
Your sleep dysfunction is our good fortune!!!
That's a dichotomy!!!!!
Thanks for sharing, and have a Nightmare Free and Kick Ass Week End
that is kinda scary to dream of the snake having never seen it and then to find that it is real...the sleep seeing forever close comes off a bit eerie to me...
ReplyDelete"Sewing earth to sky"! and "Sew the dream tight"... I don't think these are nightmares - they are gifts! Wow - just gorgeous! Love the concept of the snakes "quilting".
ReplyDeleteThe word play here is as stunning as that snake. I like the repetition and "sewing earth to sky". Nicely done but scary too. Aren't dreams the strangest things? I am especially fearful of those that are repeated. And I once had my own snake dream, more like a nightmare of childish magnitude. Hope your computer problems are short lived.
ReplyDeleteYay me, I knew about the sea snake cos i watch lots of nature shows!
ReplyDelete"blue-banded blacksnake" That just sounds so cool I want to keep saying it.
Your ending is chilling and striking and hoo baby. It reminds me of weird spy movvies where they tape the poor guy's eyes open and make him watch whatever they will. Yeesh!
Hey Joy--Glad typing online is working for you--you have so many coils of wordplay and imagery here--I especially like the enjambment between stanzas--I guess they are just called stanza breaks-- they work like the bands of the snake--little black outs that take up the sense of the poem again, but allow for dual interpretation and work really well with your stitching and quilting and piece work sort of theme. (Agh I am having my own computer problems which arise from trying to comment on a blogger blog with an IPad in a hotel.) I won't be coherent but I love that funny word for the snake swallowing itself, which itself sounds like an Easter-ish Island--and I love the oxymorons here -- or near ones -- that remind me of self-swallowing--the midnight mourning, the blue blood bits, and there are others but I am going to lose this comment if I scroll up to check--even things like seaming (which sounds like seeming here in a good way -- ) and the seeing forever-- a lot of ways to interpret that I think - especially when dealing with snakes. My dreams are terribly prosaic, but my husband has enough for the two of us--(he relays them in some detail--ha!) They work better as poems. (I hope you--and he if he ever reads this) knows that I am joking. It is envy speaking. Take care--good luck re computer. k.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of snakes, but this one is pretty and your poem is even prettier, hedgewitch. Dreams are the theme and everyone is having amazing ones lately, it seems. :)
ReplyDeleteSo very cool to find within a dream, a being you hadn't met yet, and then to find it exists in this reality, too. That's the best stuff of poetry, and any art. The snake is stunning, its latin name is also beautiful, and your poem does it a colorful, evocative justice. I get taken in to a deeper place right about when you get to that second to last stanza. I enjoy the courageous and commanding nature of your voice as you close. Great work!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous snake. I love the rhythm of this and the image of the snake quilting earth and sky and then the dream to your eyes. The ending gave me shivers somehow. On a more mundane level, the DragonVale game I play online has added an ouroboros dragon with the features you described. Liked seeing it used in your poem.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful snake, dream, and poem!
ReplyDeleteI never thought a snake would make me feel secure in the world.
ReplyDeleteWow, now that's a dream...Love all of it, but especially the ending "blood bracelet me" That is such a beautiful snake.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful poem!
ReplyDeleteIf a computer must die, this is a hell of a note for it to die on. This is incredibly cool. Just a stunning combination of imagery and sound.
ReplyDeleteSnake dreams!!! whatever next Hedge? - trains in tunnels!!! LOL
ReplyDeletegreat word play in the title, have you seen the movie? SL. Jackson is a legend!
no matter the underbelly of origination, your dream interpretation is vivid and ALIVE with everything I love:
Blue banded blacksnake,
ouroboros needle
sewing earth to sky
in sea serpent
the imagery here is as good as it gets, the cross over of the sky looping into the earth eating itself is exceptional as I see it - indelible and undeniable . . .
Blood-bracelet me
with your blue black coil
Made me pull a face of ooossshhhhhhhh! like boom
which literally translates as something fantastic
a Freudian field
TRIP with connotations that stretch
two steps beyond the obvious . . .
oddly, the same thing happened to me regarding a fish called a 'Stickleback' many years ago which I will never forget, that moment when you find out its real is V uncanny.
an awesome piece of PO hedge - best.
Your dreams are fascinating and a bit scary. Love the alliteration and imagery in this.
ReplyDelete