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Following the thread | Genna Gardini
14 hours ago
When you start writing a poem, do you try to work out in advance what you are going to say?
When we read strong poems written by other people, it is easy to believe that they arrived perfectly finished and fully formed. In fact, the best poems can grow out of the silliest ideas or a fragment of last night’s dream.
Genna Gardini is a South African poet and theatre-maker with a doctorate from Queen Mary University of London as well as years of experience running creative writing workshops. Her debut collection, Matric Rage (uHlanga, 2014) was a finalist for the Ingrid Jonker Prize, and another recent poem was nominated for the international Pushcart Prize. This month, she shared a poem with the AVBOB Poetry blog in which she describes a mysterious dream she cannot interpret.
Read the poem Gardini shared and be inspired to use it as the springboard for a dream poem of your own.
Even though this is written as prose, without the line breaks we usually associate with poetry on the page, we recognise it as a poem from the precision of its language and its sharp focus. To begin with, we are invited to explore whether or not we should believe in ghosts. But soon, we are off on an even bigger adventure. Suddenly, anything is possible; everything seems believable.
For a start, the first thing the poet remembers being told as a child is that she has been involved in the killing of a man. This sounds absurd, until we remember how many of the beliefs that are handed down to us are concerned with sin, redemption and blood. It is as if Gardini is winking at us, reminding us that the world is infinitely strange and mysterious.
In response to so much uncertainty, the poet would like to eliminate surprise. She makes sure that she knows in advance how the stories she is following will end. But she still does not know how her dream will end, and she knows that Google does not have this information either. Still, this lack of control is a source of excitement as well as frustration. Ultimately, by following the thread of such dreams and beliefs, Gardini is showing us how to set out on the journey of writing a poem without knowing in advance where it might lead.
In the next few days, write down one of your own most haunting dreams. Simply describe what happens as clearly as possible, without trying to explain or interpret it. Then follow the thread of that dream and turn it into a poem.
The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition closed on 30 November 2025 and reopens in 2026. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za and register to enter.
When we read strong poems written by other people, it is easy to believe that they arrived perfectly finished and fully formed. In fact, the best poems can grow out of the silliest ideas or a fragment of last night’s dream.
Genna Gardini is a South African poet and theatre-maker with a doctorate from Queen Mary University of London as well as years of experience running creative writing workshops. Her debut collection, Matric Rage (uHlanga, 2014) was a finalist for the Ingrid Jonker Prize, and another recent poem was nominated for the international Pushcart Prize. This month, she shared a poem with the AVBOB Poetry blog in which she describes a mysterious dream she cannot interpret.
Read the poem Gardini shared and be inspired to use it as the springboard for a dream poem of your own.
Ghost
I wake up and there is a woman at the foot of my bed, waiting. I blink and she is gone. Do you believe in ghosts? you’ll ask. I believe in everything. Once, someone pointed to a badge on my fanny-pack and whispered it was haunted. Once, someone told me my soul is so old that, if I wanted, I could finally transcend. Once, someone said that what I’m waiting for is actually waiting for me. As I grow older, I see that I can’t escape myself. This is a gift. I was raised in a blood cult. You must understand that the first thing I learned is that I killed a man. I always read spoilers for everything that I watch because, as a woman, I’m wary of surprises, and because, as a poet, I do not value plot. If I could, I’d google Dream I had with ghost ending explained but sleep, like belief, doesn’t work that way.
Even though this is written as prose, without the line breaks we usually associate with poetry on the page, we recognise it as a poem from the precision of its language and its sharp focus. To begin with, we are invited to explore whether or not we should believe in ghosts. But soon, we are off on an even bigger adventure. Suddenly, anything is possible; everything seems believable.
For a start, the first thing the poet remembers being told as a child is that she has been involved in the killing of a man. This sounds absurd, until we remember how many of the beliefs that are handed down to us are concerned with sin, redemption and blood. It is as if Gardini is winking at us, reminding us that the world is infinitely strange and mysterious.
In response to so much uncertainty, the poet would like to eliminate surprise. She makes sure that she knows in advance how the stories she is following will end. But she still does not know how her dream will end, and she knows that Google does not have this information either. Still, this lack of control is a source of excitement as well as frustration. Ultimately, by following the thread of such dreams and beliefs, Gardini is showing us how to set out on the journey of writing a poem without knowing in advance where it might lead.
In the next few days, write down one of your own most haunting dreams. Simply describe what happens as clearly as possible, without trying to explain or interpret it. Then follow the thread of that dream and turn it into a poem.
The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition closed on 30 November 2025 and reopens in 2026. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za and register to enter.
