Chapter 4

Draft (Please do not distribute)

Unlocking the Creative Process

The Three Stanza Poem

Consider this exercise: With your dream in mind, re-write the dream in as few words as possible in a poem with three stanzas.  It doesnÕt have to be Nobel Laureate quality! It can just be key words, so donÕt worry about having a lot of words. 

The first stanza is the objective stanza.  Make it a word sketch such that it scores the very same way your dream scored, whatever it was. 

The second stanza is the subjective stanza.  You can start messing with this dream, again in as few words as possible.  If you donÕt like your dream, or I feel bad about it, or wish to change, complain or reject anything – whatever you want to do, thereÕs no holds barred.  You can start making changes and they can be anything. 

If you want, you can ask questions during the second stanza,

ÒWhat are you saying to me?Ó

 ÒWhat am I hearing?Ó

You could ask several questions, each question could be a line in the second stanza of your poem.

So, the second stanza is one that is the most fluid.  There are no rules for it.  There are rules to the first and third stanzas, no rules for the second.

The third stanza is the transformative stanza.  The rule here is that you now write words such that the stanza scores transformative.  Your imagination is the only limit. You can call for help in your words, if you need to. Bring in a hero to help you if you want. There are no limitations on asking for support.

It is interesting that the very act of writing these words actually makes changes in you, and they are permanent.  That is the creative process.  That is what artists do, be they poets, writers, composers, painters, sculptors, etc. That is what they do.  They struggle with their inner and outer monsters and demons trying to transform them. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don't. If they don't at first, then they try again, but with new ideas or insights the next time until they achieve something transformative.  Once they produce something beautiful, something exciting and satisfying, transformation happens.  ItÕs permanent.  ThatÕs why they are so vulnerable to this experience. 

This gives you a road or a path to follow if you did not already have one.  This give you a way to know what to change in the process of moving to a higher level of awareness and evolving or developing your understanding. 

The easiest dream types for this process are those that score "motivational". We will discuss this more thoroughly when we discuss the four typical dream patterns in a later chapter, which are: transformative, anticipatory, motivational, and traumatic.

Here is an example of a three-stanza poem written by a workshop participant who had never written a poem in his life and who was a combat soldier. He is recalling a troubling dream he called "Combat". It beautifully illustrates the power of this process. 

Hot and dusty brothers, involuntary servitude. 

Deathly roses seek us out, rage, carnage, helpless loss. 

Hold me, save me, mother, why does this happen to us?

Keep me safe. Where are the others? 

Those who are my brothers, are they not also your sons? 

All participants in the workshop were moved by these few, simple words, as was the writer, himself.