Dream Pantoum, a Pantoum Prompt

Moment-Catchings Preserve So Much of a Day (or a Dream) in Their Lessness.

Old drawing of a boat on a River.

Pádraig Ó Tuama

shared a Pantoum prompt for a beloved Object last week. I love the prompt and watching the lines make new sense and unsense as they rearrange on the page. I wrote one about my grandmother’s 1950s green glass lamp and nothing miraculous came of it. I had already been struggling that morning to recall my dream for my daily poem.

I altered the prompt to uproot the dream and as a result, extracted what I could from my watery cannery slumber. I am sharing this variation and feel part thief, part imposter, and part successful dream re-capturer!

Please share your Dream Pantoums in the comments! I would love to read them and trust others would too. And if you write an object Pantoum - share it over at

Poetry Unbound

!

DREAM PANTOUM

1. Where it took place

2. How you found it

3. Others or objects in it

4. A secret it holds

5. A description of it

6. How it made you feel

7. What did you find in it

8. What it means to you

1
2
3
4

2
5
4
6

5
7
6
8

7
3
8
1

Use these prompts loosely to find your way around your dream. Put the 8 lines in their place according to the numbers above. You will likely have to play from here. In the end you will have 16 lines with delicious repetition and new meaning!

Here is mine:

In My Dream, A Pantoum

In a many-windowed house by a rippling river
A foggy dream, nearly not remembered, rippled in
It belonged to the family with me, though they didn’t say
Near a man in a boat, I long to see

A foggy dream, nearly not remembered, rippled in
The light, a misty river light illumined textures within
There was a man in a boat, I long to see
Lost perhaps, distracted — let me be

The light, a misty river light illumined textures within
Abandoned treasures yearned to be lifted
Lost perhaps, distracted — let them be
I want to want to find my way back

Abandoned treasures yearned to be lifted
They belonged to the family with me, though they didn’t say
I want to want to find my way back
To the many-windowed house by a rippling river

22 October 2022

A Lesson in Perspective, A Malachite River, Pantoum,

ps: Here is Pádraig again on Poetry Unbound, reading a pantoum by Kay Ulanday Barrett

https://onbeing.org/programs/kay-ulanday-barrett-pantoum-for-recital-when-my-mom-said-dont-let-them-see-you-cry/

I remember my walk through the woods when I listened to this, and how each line seemed new, though familiar. I was surprised, when I returned home to see the words, to see the repetition. The new meaning each line gained in its new place in the poem felt miraculous.

Sauna and Cold Plunge Mornings and Nights, Poeming, and Scribbling