Mantra is taking us spelunking. Grab a rope, a torch and a buddy.
Ideas are always gems. They catch the light and captivate our attention. What happens when we keep the ideas inside our head?
If we pool them together, do they fit into patterns becoming brighter? Or are they more like glitter, shaken in a tube? Mantra does not think they are either. Instead, she see them as the mineral deposits in a Crystal Cave.
This poem is image heavy. Clear your mind. If you have ever been in a growing cave, you will see these images readily. You may even feel the spattering mist from the drops. You will definitely see the crystals.
Crystal Cave
A cancer grows within your soul.
It lives in the cave where you let
Your emotions dwell, protected.
In the cool, dark quiet, it grows,
Building stalagmites up to reach
The fertile garden of your brain.
Sparkling crystals shine in moonlight.
They are ideas from the mind spring,
Dripped from stalactites, collected
On the ever growing cave floor.
Thoughts smooth as glass flow over ‘tites
Leaving shiny memory grains.
Each day more of you pours into
The rock garden maze until you
Slip from reality’s firm grasp
With no consciousness left to clasp.
‘Tites and ‘mites meet, touching at last.
The garden became a forest.
You’ve slipped from our world down into
A dream prison which once was you.
The bars all formed with the fragments
Of the dreaming mind gone stagnant.
Emptied of intellect and will,
Siphoned out when you became ill.
Lofty ideals and strong beliefs
Destroyed when there was no relief.
Perhaps, one day science will find
A cure for your unraveled mind.
Until then, we will still mourn you
And those dreams you couldn’t make true.
070820121021
~~~~~~~~~~
What makes up the crystals? What cancer causes the mind to stop trying to chase dreams? Are we defined by our ideas? What happens if we hoard all our ideas? What happens to our minds when we stop dreaming?
jennygoth
/ August 27, 2012a sad poem red but true if we give up things rapidly go down hill thoughts dreams and ambitions lay at the bottom of our inner cave so the cure is never give up till your dying breath thankyou for visit today and your lovely words you left me have a brilliant week il catch up here one day xxjen
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Red
/ August 28, 2012I completely agree with the never give up. Glad to see you today, Jen. You are more than welcome to explore around 😉 Check up not necessary <3 xxx
Androgoth
/ August 27, 2012I really like your poem, of course I have never been inside a cave (not since my Neanderthal days 🙂 ) but I can sense the vast cavern that you are describing with its stalactites and stalagmites, I like the narrative, the merging of the two and the ageing process, the thoughts decreasing as the memories become distorted with time…
It could be a reflection of Alzheimer’s disease in its latter stages or just a collection of thoughts being misplaced by an aged mind, the fleeting imagery diluted and fading into the unknown segments of the brain, a territory that is relatively unchartered and mysterious…
Yes a very good posting Red 🙂
Androgoth XXx
Binky
/ August 27, 2012Well Andro said it a lot better than I ever could!
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Red
/ August 28, 2012I like the idea of misplaced thoughts. Alzheimer’s is definitely a possibility, although not my original intent. But then again, my original intent is often masked by the pretty (and gruesome) pictures 😉 Glad you liked this one, my friend.
MysteryCoach
/ August 27, 2012What makes up the crystals?
Fear, self doubt, lack of support
What cancer causes the mind to stop trying to chase dreams?
Complacency, other people, life experience
Are we defined by our ideas?
I don’t know…
What happens if we hoard all our ideas?
No one benefits.
What happens to our minds when we stop dreaming?
We die inside. Lose faith and hope.
MysteryCoach recently posted..50 Things to Stop Doing Forever
Red
/ August 28, 2012I thought the middle question would get you thinking. Interesting you mention faith with dreams. Why is that?
MJ Logan
/ August 27, 2012You left me speechless Red, as if all the insanity that has been my life this past week was summed up in a few words.
MJ
MJ Logan recently posted..Merry Go Round
MJ Logan
/ August 27, 2012I don’t think we are defined by our ideas, but more by how we follow our dreams and put our ideas to use. If we stop dreaming, we have no reason to live. If we hoard our ideas, we become nothing.
The cancer is anything that causes us to stop dreaming or share our ideas. The crystals are the collection of life experiences that shape how we dream and think.
MJ
MJ Logan recently posted..Merry Go Round
Red
/ August 28, 2012So for you the dreaming is our human character?
Red
/ August 28, 2012For you the crystals are sanity?
Binky
/ August 27, 2012Hopefully we never stop dreaming until the day we die. Reality can be a boring place in which to live.
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Red
/ August 28, 2012Very true. Is the dreaming growth?
Binky
/ August 28, 2012Some of us would like to believe that.
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Red
/ August 28, 2012I think it is where invention begins, so I do equate dreaming and growth.
Gail Thornton
/ August 27, 2012Like Andro and Binky, I quickly thought of the aging process and alzheimers disease. I knew a talented potter with early onset and watched her leave life and her two young ones, ideas, creativity, and brilliance snuffed out. On the flip side, I loved MJ Logan’s comment about anything that causes us to stop dreaming. I think even if aging catches up with me, I’ll always dream. People don’t usually change, and neither will I (big dreamer!) Gailxxx
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Red
/ August 28, 2012I am a dreamer as well, and I dream big. (Go big or go home.) I think MJ is right about the myriad causes of our stopping dreaming. What do you think of Mystery Coach’s ideas?
Gail Thornton
/ August 27, 2012Your poem is mesmerizing and as brilliant as the language you use in it. The imagery is crystalline and powerful. I feel the closing in of the space in the poem and in the image of the dreamscape.
Beautifully done, Red—-love it!
Gail Thornton recently posted..Poem – Involution
Red
/ August 28, 2012Thank you. This was one with very tactile imagery. I have been in caverns before. It is a very inspiring experience. xxx
Barb
/ August 28, 2012“The bars all formed with the fragments
Of the dreaming mind gone stagnant.”
This is what speaks to me. Perhaps from visiting loved ones trapped behind the bars of their mind. I have a dear friend who greets her Alzheimer-husband each day, searching his eyes and waiting. Waiting for the spark of the man she loved to come back.
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Red
/ August 28, 2012I have been there and know how disheartening it is to be caring for someone who cannot remember who you are from day to day. I think when we are mentally too still, we are caged. Great to see you today, Barb. xxx
prenin
/ August 28, 2012The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity.
Satan (Legend).
Love and hugs!
Prenin
Red
/ August 28, 2012Sometimes, Pren, but there are many a youthful dream which become adult triumph. Food for thought… {HUGZ}
Lizzie Cracked
/ August 28, 2012Addiction – and it becomes all muddled and confused and you don’t know what is real or imagninary .. I don;t know f we are defined by ideas or actions – I guess if you put idea to action? or.. umm I feel this way some times like – …. um.. i forgot sorry
and if you dont dream then you become only what you are and never anything better.
Lotsa love – Lizzie <3
Lizzie Cracked recently posted..Magpie’s Treasure; DeLight in This Child
Red
/ August 28, 2012Very good idea about the cancer. Addiction often eats up so much of the mind and distorts the thought process. <3 xxx