1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts below the poem

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

Last Night, As I Was Sleeping

  Last night, as I was sleeping, 
I dreamt — marvelous error! – 
that a spring was breaking 
out in my heart
I said: along which secret aqueduct, 
Oh water, are you coming to me, 
water of a new life, 
that I have never drunk? 

  Last night, as I was sleeping, 
I dreamt — marvelous error! – 
that I had a beehive 
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees 
were making white combs 
and sweet honey 
from my old failures.  

  Last night, as I was sleeping, 
I dreamt – marvelous error! – 
that a fiery sun was giving 
light inside my heart. 
It was fiery because I felt 
warmth as from a hearth, 
and sun because it gave a light 
and brought tears to my eyes. 

  Last night, as I slept, 
I dreamt – marvelous error! – 
that it was God I had 
here inside my heart. 

 by Antonio Machado
—Translated by Robert Bly 

Please join in for Round 7 of Writing From The Inside Out by attending the October 2020 read-around sessions on Friday afternoons (it’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). If you have not registered, click the button below; and if you have registered, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read Around is October 2, 2020 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Antonio Machado’s poem, Last Night, As I Was Sleeping, is one of my all-time favorite poems. He uses dreaming as a context to present the beautiful imagery that arises in his heart. We usually assume dreams are not real, but Machado (or should I say Bly’s translation of Machado) presents us with a dilemma by juxtapoing dream with “marvelous error.” Is the error the content of what he dreamt making all that follows a fanciful illusion. Or is the error labeling it a dream thus making the content that follows the greaer reality? I opt for the latter.

I do not have any religious affiliation, leaning more toward a Buddhist philosophy than the standard fare available for westerners. For years, I wrestled with religious imagery and spiritual terms, which often vied for lines in a poem, or which seemed to steer my pen for a dip in some holy ink. I have come to accept those impulses and let them spill onto the page, not as a commitment to a creed, but as a devotion to the flow of my craft. But I admit, poems like this by Machado make me want to find the secret aqueduct and drink the water of a new life.

And who among us has not had a fair share of failures? Who among us would not welcome a dream of golden bees to work our old failures into sweet honey? Perhaps, then, we too would feel a fiery sun shining its light out from our own awakened heart! We too might then feel “God” has taken up residence there inside. I know for me, if it occurred in a dream, it would be a greater blessing, and would feel more real and more meaningful than if I had written it in a frenzied moment of poetic inspiration. Either way, it would not matter to me whether it was a marvelous error, or a beautiful illusion, or a holy visitation. That is how grace comes to us, leaving us uncertain of its origin, arriving without effort or cause, and despite any sense that we may, or may not, deserve it.

Week 25 Prompt Menu

  1. Write a poem about a dream that fascinated you or that revealed something special to you. If you cannot recall one, imagine a message comes to you from the dreamworld and compose a poem about it.

  2. What would happen if you drank from the spring that brings the water of a new life? What would change in you and in your life after drinking the water?

  3. Instead of the water of a new life, what kind of water would you like to spring from your heart (the water of forgiveness, of mercy, of kindness, of truth, etc.)?

  4. Machado describes the golden bees that makes sweet honey out of his old failures. Describe how the failures in your life have been transformed into honey.

  5. Instead of transforming failures, what could the golden bees in your heart be transforming (old griefs, old dreams, old inadequacies; old loves) into honey? 

  6. Describe your own light, how it shines, what it brings to the world, and how the awareness of it affects you and others. Or write about the light in another that inspires you.

  7. Write a poem about the possibility that God, or some divine energy, lives in your heart.

  8. Write from whatever else in the poem inspires you or from elsewhere in your life.