The Think Tank Thursday #110 Dream Catcher

 I loved your book poems!   I added more wonderful finds,  to my wish list. I was a bit late reading them all, but I did finish!  One poem that stood out to me was Salem Lorot's.   He based his poem on the book Think Big by Ben Carson.  Another poem with insight was by Rhonda Palmer. They both so captured the beauty of the written word and the value of books!  If you get a chance go visit their extraordinary contributions :D


I remember the first time, I bought a dream catcher. My son was little, we were living in Alaska. He was having nightmares. I remember one day at the Navy Exchange there was a Native American Arts n' Crafts show.  We both were fascinated and I remember hearing about the dream catcher legend. I decided to buy him one. I told him, we couldn't get the large ones. We needed a small one, for now. The huge ones, were gorgeous, but very expensive.  I told him how this would help.  We talked to the craftsman and he told us how spiders and nature inspired the legend.  I love the magic, of this Native American art form.

 

Dream catcherby ~Goodka8

History of Dream Catchers  *found here

"Long ago when the word was sound, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and searcher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. As he spoke, Iktomi the spider picked up the elder's willow hoop which had feathers, horsehair, beads and offerings on it, and began to spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life, how we begin our lives as infants, move on through childhood and on to adulthood. Finally we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle.
But, Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, in each time of life there are many forces, some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they'll steer you in the wrong direction and may hurt you. So these forces can help, or can interfere with the harmony of Nature. While the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web.
When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the elder the web and said, The web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to help your people reach their goals, making good use of their ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the great spirit, the web will filter your good ideas and the bad ones will be trapped and will not pass.

The elder passed on his vision onto the people and now many Indian people have a dreamcatcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good will pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The evil in their dreams are captured in the web, where they perish in the light of the morning sun.  It is said the dream catcher holds the destiny of the future." *DreamCatcher. org

 

Storytimeby =Pajunen

Dream Catcherby =Pajunen

 

 "Who looks outside, dreams: who looks inside,  awakes." -Carl Jung

 

 “Dreams are free therapy. Consult your inner Freud.” -Grey Livingston

 

“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.” -Marsha Norman

 

 

 

Yes, we are going to play with the idea of dreams and catching nightmares.  Our prompt this week is #110  DREAM CATCHER! 

 

If you have a prompt idea (even a Music or Film inspired one) that you would like to suggest or share with us please send it to poetsunited@ymail.com . We keep a folder set aside with all your suggestions and just might use it one day.

 

There 3 simple rules:

 

1. Don’t link to more than 3 poems per week.

2. Please visit some of the other poems linked here when you link to yours.

3. Leave a comment after you have posted your link.