Truth or just a dream?
Passing in the night
Was that really me?
Things not as they seem
Shifts twixt mad and fright
Truth or just a dream?
Altruism; schemed
Followed dark and light
Was that really me?
Chaos taffy sweet
Peace a drifting kite
Truth or just a dream?
Trust and love don’t meet
Pairings doomed to fight
Was that really me?
Floating salty sea
Time of calm alight
Truth or just a dream?
Was that really me?
Reena Saxena is the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge. Reena says:
Was that really me?
I read a book with this title by Naomi Quenk, and the words have been imprinted on the psyche. You may twist it to:
That’s not me
That can’t be me
Where is the real me?
It is all acceptable.
A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa. The first and the third lines in the first stanza are repeated in alternating order throughout the poem, and appear together in the last couplet (last two lines).
image link here
I am also linking this to dVerse. Frank Hubeny hosts Meet the Bar tonight.
Tao Talk 
I love the place where dreams and truth mix. Some dream s are true and some truth is dreams.
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Well said!
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This is brilliant Li! Thought provoking and poignant.
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Thanks!
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🙏😂
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Some things are better left unknown.
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Thought-provoking lines! Villanelle is not an easy form to write, but you did an excellent job with it.
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Thanks, Reena 🙂
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Reblogged this on Reena Saxena and commented:
Was that really me?
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Wow, I hung on every word! Beautifully written!
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Thank you, Eugi.
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My pleasure!
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Beautifully written. It starts a thought process.
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Indira thank you.
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Welcome, dear.
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A terrific double-header; villanelle raises its formistic head again. You wrote a beauty.
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Glenn thanks 🙂
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I like the questioning in those repeating lines. It sometimes seems like a dream and I sometimes wonder if it was really me.
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Thank you 🙂
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Very surreal to think about!
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Yes it is. It’s one of the big stories in one of the main books of philosophical daoism.
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Ah, the “really me” … the secret self we rarely, if ever, share.
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It’s a shame too. It’s a matter of trust, I think….
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This separation of self that is possible with a dream is such a wonderful moment to ponder our being. I will try to do that more.
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I like the way you said that.
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I love to analyze my dreams but this discussion comes full circle…lovely poetry!
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Lynn, glad you connected with the poem 🙂
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…especially those dreams that repeat themselves every so often – there is a certain character that is me but the setting, age, emotions I recognize as this “character”… and I recognize she is back when I’m dreaming and am so happy to see her again… I’ve been having this “interaction” since I was in middle school – Maybe have dreamed “her” 12 times throughout my life. This is what your poem reminded me of.
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That’s very interesting. Recurring dreams are like litmus paper from what I’ve seen. What state the nouns/objects/subjects that recur are in gives us an idea of what’s going on in our waking selves. My recurring symbol is an aquarium and that aquarium has ranged from one to a roomful to one that empties into an ocean, and the state of the aquarium has ranged from the fish starving but still alive to giant fish leaping in the ocean — and everything in between. Only you know what that character means to you, but it sounds like they might represent your groundedness? Or a sense of adventure? Or? Bjorn’s comment is pretty sharp about the function of dreams also.
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Brilliant lines of self reflection.
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Thank you, it’s hard to admit the truth at times.
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Yes, I think we feel too judged to be transparent.
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