Jungian dreamwork is part of my spiritual direction training and dream images are the seeds for many of my poems. This poem created entirely with dream images, was my first poem picked up for publication.
Dream Journeys
A wild and crazy road trip
across the causeway
over leaping turquoise waves…
The hotel has a bar.
I stop for drinks with the shadow,
who sings songs in a language I need.
I pass through the rooms of days long past –
a busy restaurant kitchen,
a darkened bedroom,
a noisy classroom,
trip over a dusty childhood coffee table,
sneak through someone’s wedding,
joyfully spill chicken & dumplings on the floor
at a family reunion─
struggle through piano lessons
with a stern Hugh Laurie.
I chase my Father
down
down
down
the serpentine feminine path
and find myself
on the opposite side
of where I began.
-Tara L. Carnes
“Dream Journeys” Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction Vol. 21 No. 4, Dec. 2015 Print.