The idea that makes up the title of Dillon Bloomer’s Mindless is an interesting one to analyze, particularly in an artistic format. The human mind is seemingly always active; it is just about impossible for a person to simply not think about things. To be mindless is to be in a state that might be seen as being unnatural, or arguably in the most peaceful state, a person can be in. Bloomer’s analysis into the mindless individual takes on a highly poetic — which is to say, metaphorical and abstract — look into the state of mind, because by nature it cannot be experienced and described during. The result is a very interesting and strangely relatable analysis that helps to solidify the abstract and bring the reader into a mindless world.
Mindless Analysis
Never underestimate the power of a dream
The opening line of the poem explains right away the meaning of the title. “Mindless” here refers to the mind in a dreaming state. Interestingly enough, the mind does not actually “shut off” during a dream, but does, as most have experienced, tend to work differently than it does during more conscious periods. The poem seems to be about a period of time for which the mind of the dreamer is not entirely controlled by them, and this is described by the narrator as being a very powerful process.
The poem is very much unstructured, keeping to short, non-rhyming lines that make up one single verse. This fits the concept of an abstract dreaming world very well, and also serves to keep the poem from over-analyzing its own concept. It is kept short, simple, and keeps to its own point, which is very much to its own advantage.
In the mind of a dream
To escape the thoughts of the wounded
A dream is here described as being a haven; the “thoughts of the wounded” could refer to a person who is trying to rest to recover from physical injury, or it could refer to sleep as being a person who is hurt in a mental capacity, such as someone who is heartbroken or depressed. Because they are mindless in their sleep, the mind that controls the dream is one that is different from the one that is injured. The dream is an escape, then, a way to get away from a harsh reality.
The simple sights of man
To find of something more
In a dream, everything is amplified, and nothing is the same. Because the dream mind is mindless, it makes associations that are nonsensical to the conscious mind. As these lines describe, even the simple sights from everyday life can be looked at differently within a dream. It is a means for a different perspective, which instills a sense of irony within the poem — a person can discover a different way of thinking by not thinking at all, and can make sense of reality through the nonsense of their dreams.
In the mind of the wounded
The mind is an endless trench
From which there is no escape
From here, the poem takes on a slightly more abstract approach to describing its purpose. It declares that a wounded mind is an endless trench, invoking the image of a deep pit with no light throughout. To be wounded is to be trapped, and it is inside the individual’s mind that the trapping occurs. A wounded mind, then, is not one that functions in the same way a regular mind does. If a wounded mind is like existing within an endless trench, then an intact mind is like being free and open. The note that there is no escape from a wounded mind further suggests that the “wound” described is one that is mental or perhaps spiritual in nature. This is likely because physical wounds heal — in the mind of the wounded so described, there is no escape.
Even in the dream mind is haunting
The lack of punctuation makes this line difficult to properly interpret, but it seems likely the narrator is referencing that although the dreaming mind is not wounded, it is not an entirely safe place. It is described as being haunting, suggesting the manner in which particularly vivid dreams stay with the individual after they wake. Generally speaking, dreams are rarely remembered, and the average person dreams far more often than they can recall. Every once in awhile, however, a dream stays with the dreamer for a long time, and becomes a part of their conscious mind.
In the mind of man
To an escape may be known
Is it a day soon unknown
The most ambiguous element of the poem is in the final few lines, which seem to suggest that the described escape from the endless trench is an abstract concept itself; it’s all in the mind of the dreamer. For the references to escape, it is possible the poem is suggesting that escape may be possible, but that it takes an indeterminate amount of time; it is also possible that it references the idea of a person waiting so long for an escape that they lose track of time itself, and the day becomes unknown.
Ending on an abstract nature is a fitting close for the piece, as it itself describes something ambiguous. The relationship between the mindless, the dream mind, and the conscious mind is not something that is easily quantifiable or even thought about. For Dillon Bloomer, the relationship makes a lot of sense, but the experience itself is vague, and more than a little hopeless at times. In many ways, this appears to be a poem about dealing with some kind of stress, and finding an endless trench by day, and a haunting arena by night. As with all stress, the resolution is rarely a certainty, and so the day of relief becomes an unknown. It could also be a poem simply about analyzing and advising, based on the nature of something that Bloomer has a unique perspective concerning. The true meaning behind this short poem is one that is ambiguous in nature — and that could well be an entire meaning in and of itself.
