Yesterday I searched for a gift for my son whose birthday is coming up. He’s an artist who favors surrealists and abstract expressionism.
I came upon some Salvador Dalí paintings which made me remember a trip to London with my son where we visited “Dalí Universe.”
I read that much of his artwork came to him in the few seconds between sleep and wakefulness. I imagined Dalí dipping into his dreams while creating his artwork. He referred to his art as “hand-painted dream photographs.”
Dali called this “method” his “secret of sleeping while awake,” or the hypnagogic state.
This captured my attention since I frequently find that dawn is when I feel most creative.
Today during those seconds between waking and leaving my dreams I found a poem.
Sleep State
In the depths of the morning
I touch heaven,
the dawn rises
in ribbons of blue,
in the quiet
before the hum
of living.
In the depths of the morning,
when light creeps through
a flutter of lashes,
I reach back into a dream
to salvage a memory
relive a feeling.
In the depths of the morning,
in the silence
where there is only me,
I breath life
through a yawn
and decide
to try another day.
Luckily, I have my cell phone on my nightstand and use it to record notes, including this poem. I find if I turn on my lamp to use my pen and jot words down on paper, the bright light distracts me.
Maybe this technique of “sleeping while awake” will help you as a writer, artist, or poet.
Or you can try sleeping more, 😴
What prompts your creativity?
alvaradofrazier.com 