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TIGER PODIUM; c. 2003/9/29 by Monica M; a predictive dream
The stage curtain opens. Tigers sit on podiums. In the center is a huge one with a bloody mouth. A few days later...
PRODROMAL DREAMLETS: by Arnaud de Villeneuve, c.1300; Conrad Gessner, 1565/12/8;
M. Teste, 1830-1848, and Maurice Macario, early 1850s? four dreams predicting illness
Dog bites doctor's leg. Snake bites scholar's chest. Apoplexy kills a
government minister. Tonsillitis flattens a sleep and dream researcher...
SNOT-BIRD FORGERY!: a dream by Samuel Pepys, 1667/6/29, & a nightmare by Thomas Macaulay, c.1857
Samuel Pepys dreamt of kidneystones, pee, come, & snot--or did he? Thomas Macauley dreams his niece confesses...
CARACARAS TELL ALL: by Sean McCann, c.2010, a wistful dream
SITUATION: I'm in the rainforest, studying the red-throated caracara, a clever, elusive bird...
DREAM: Caracaras show up in Vancouver, speaking fluent English. At LAST I can interview...
KORE: by Ann McCoy; 1986, a dream of the Goddess inspires an epic drawing
My guide to the archeological site was veiled, but soon she revealed her scales
and gills. A little girl led a procession in, to reconsecrate the Temple of Isis...
ARIANA'S EVENING: by Andrea McFarland; 2022/4/28, a dream of a long-lost love
Fifty years after I drove him away with high-school idiocy, I get one last kiss before...
BREAK-IN: by Andrea McFarland; 2011/4/21; a psychic warning dream
A thief was breaking in. I tried to flee, but my dad got in the way. Woke up, went out to my car, and found...
MOON LAUNCH: by Andrea McFarland, 2021/9/25; a frustrating flying dream
I'm scheduled to fly the first antigravity ship to the moon--if I can just get to the pad on time...
SYNCHRONIZED WATCHES: by Andrea McFarland; late 1998, a psychic warning dream.
I dream my watch is way off and I'll be late. When I wake, I check
my daughter's watch. They agree. Can't BOTH be wrong... can they?
TIGER: by Andrea McFarland, 2023/4/21; a dream of an anima? shadow? familiar?
A Bengal tiger slips into my room. Others panic and want to call the police, but I feel protective...
UNCLE MAC'S SECRET GENIUS: by Andrea McFarland, 2023/1/22, a surreal dream
My uncle Mac has a secret scheme to free us all from the Rat Race, but
his dancing mouse-headed robots (and climate change) get out of hand...
TIGER'S EYE CAVE: by Brian MacGregor, 2002-2003?, a predictive dream
I dreamed of this tree growing out of a cave-mouth. Years later, in Guatemala, I
was shocked to encounter my dream. That tree and that cave were all too surreal...
ANOCHE / LAST NIGHT: by Antonio Machado; c. 1900; a joyful dream poem
Last night, as I slept, I dreamt--illusion blessed!--that I had a beehive, here inside my heart...
THE NIGHT DREAM: by Archibald MacLeish; c.1930, a dream poem.
A joyous day with a strange woman who seems not to be his wife, until he touches her hand and knows...
HOGAMUS HIGAMUS: by Mrs Amos Pinchot, or Claire MacMurray? Nov. 1939, a disavowed dream-poem.
She dreamed she'd written a wise and beautiful poem. Half asleep she scribbled it down. Awake, she found...
CAUTION: HOGGEREL
GARDEN OF SWORDS: by Louis MacNeice; 1937, a dream foreseeing World War II.
I'm at a garden-party when They attack. I flee through a garden of swords, but a guard with a bayonet...
PYLONS: by Louis MacNeice; Jan. 1940. A surreal political dream.
I was on a steamer run amok, in a boiling yellow incredible sea out of which great pylons rose...
TWENTY OF ME: by Robert MacNish; before 1830. A dream of multiplicity.
I possessed ubiquity: twenty of me, and each possessed by my same soul, so I could not say who I inhabited...
A DAUGHTER TO DOTE ON: by Thomas Madden; 2017/9/17, a dream on gender? Family pressure? Both?
My dad saw a mob killing; our family enters witness protection. But why's my new role female? Well, my parents...
CAUTION: WILLING OR UNWILLING DRAG?
SHARK, SHARK, SHARK!: by Thomas Madden; 2017/12/3, a non-nightmare about fear
I'm in a crowd as a man lectures about sharks. He points at me and asks "Shall I throw him in with...?"
VOTERS GONE CRAZY: by Thomas Madden, c. 2009/2/5; a political nightmare
It's election time in Europe, but voters have gone crazy. Nazis invade England. In my library, Sarah Palin rots...
CAUTION: POLITICS GONE WACKY
THE RED SPHERE: by Madeline; 2006/12/13, twin (diagnostic? psychic?) nightmares
Calmly, I watch a girl trapped in a lab try to escape, and die; and watch a man lose his head to a hungry thing...
CAUTION: GRUESOME
THAR SHE BLOWS!: by Madeline; 2008/3/27, a pirate mermaid shipwreck sex dream.
On the run I meet a lycan, a pirate, and a mermaid. She causes a flood, and something floats by I just have to grab...
CAUTION: INTERRUPTED SEX
FLY OVER THE RIVER CANYON: by Linda Magallón; 1984/9/18, a joyful flying dream
A man leads me to a cliff looking down on a canyon. Men dive into the river below, but
often hit the canyon walls. The two of us soar upwards though, across the canyon...
CLOWN: by Naguib Mahfouz; early 1995?, a surreal dream.
My town transforms into a circus--trapeze artists, elephants, clowns. At first I loved it, but when I went home...
THE LEAP: by Naguib Mahfouz, 2001?, an aborted flying dream.
I rode with my love in a cart drawn by a winged horse. But as we flew over the Great Pyramid, I jumped...
RUBBISH: by Naguib Mahfouz; dreamed 2001? A dream of advice from the dead.
My dead friend lost patience with the local dump, so I beat the trash--and out came shining people...
GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI by Edward Maitland, 1881/2/1; a character-reading dream
The two great political leaders of the Victorian Age bare their souls to me. Gladstone's ashamed that
he betrayed his ideals; Disraeli dances about, vilifying his loathed rival, but he feels no shame at all...
CAUTION: VICTORIAN PROSE, BAD POLITICIANS
MURDERER: by Dusan Makavejev, c.1960, twin nightmares with peculiar joyful moods
I'm given photos of what a murderer saw, but I recognize these scenes. I am the murderer! At least I've solved the case.
I'm in a bare white room. On the wall, a long fuse sparks. I feel euphoric from ozone--it means I've had a fatal radiation dose...
BLUE SKIES: by Georganna Malloff; 1980?, painting of a slightly predictive dream.
I dreamed of a bear playing a cello concert.
The next day at a concert I was surprised to see that the cellist...
COSMIC MAYPOLE: by Georganna Malloff; 1976-80s, dream-based drawings and totem poles
I dreamed all the creatures of the world were dancing around a maypole.
My friends and I sculpted a totem pole from the dream...
AN ELK SHOWED ME A SIGN OF PEACE: by Georganna Malloff; Nov/Dec 1985, vision
In the Rockies, in winter, I was freezing until I found the
hot springs. In the steam rising, I saw a vision of an elk...
BROKE LIKE GLASS: by Katherine Mansfield; 1919/12/15, a warning-dream.
A long terrible shiver, and my whole body broke like glass. I may live months, but in that dream I died...
SUN AND MOON: by Katherine Mansfield; 1918/2/9, a dream-story
I dreamed a short story--even its title. Not that I read it. No, I lived it, through the eyes of a 5-year-old...
MARCOUX'S DREAMS: by Shirley Marcoux, 75/11/4, 76/4/2, 4/28 & 6/24; & one by Cheryl, 76/4/3
Four apparently psychic dreamlets of a gun in a desk, a guy needing to hide,
a canyon with woodpiles & a locked gate, and a blonde girl named Cathy...
CAUTION: SMALL DREAMS, LARGE IMPLICATIONS FOR E.S.P.
THE QUEEN'S WAR: by Marianna as told by Gayle Delaney, before 1994; 2 daddy's-curse dreams
Marianna escaped her bossy dad, only to end up with a bossy countercultural boyfriend.
In these two dreams she makes the connection, and faces that she's picking Napoleons...
CAUTION: BLOODY BATTLE, BAD SEX
THE OUTER LIMITS: by Marianne A.; 1988/3/13, a dream that lucidly intervenes in itself!
I'm trapped in the scary show The Outer Limits. A man scolds me: "You think not, but you MATTER!"
I try suicide rather than face my worth! But my dream fences off the river, forcing me to confront...
CAUTION: SUICIDE ATTEMPT
WOUND-BARGAIN: by a Marine from New York; 1918/9/12-14, a prediction and possible alteration of the future
I was sure I'd be wounded, but dreaded being crippled. So I tried on injuries! I settled on a flesh wound in my left shoulder...
DON'T DO THAT, MARION: by Marion; 1947, a two-way telepathic intervention?
I planned suicide. Then my friend 1000 miles away said in my ear "Don't do that, Marion." Next day an airmail...
SUICIDAL NARRATOR
THE RED BARN MURDER: by Ann Marten, c. 1827/12/15 and early 1828; two possibly psychic dreams
Ann Marten kept dreaming that her stepdaughter had not eloped but was buried under a nearby red barn...
CAUTION: MURDER
MARTHA'S FALL: by Barbara, Martha, and Wayan; 1977/5/18. 3 linked warning, sex, and flying dreams
Wayan makes love to Martha's double, then sees her soul watching from the shadows...
Barbara can't reach Wayan to say farewell...
Martha falls off a mountain and decides to let herself die, just to see what happens...
CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
THE CHANGED RIVER: by E.M. Martin; 1914/11/25, the quietest apocalyptic dream on record
Humanity slowly 'improves' a river until the stream just disappears!
Ominous--since it's the river of nature, time and God...
THE FOUR WINDS: by E.M. Martin; 1915, a harsh antiwar dream poem.
Three wind-gods are so revolted by humanity they want to kill us; the fourth says we'll kill ourselves soon enough...
THE LAST MASS: by E.M. Martin; 1914/11/23, a dream of war invading a peaceful dreamland
For years Martin's dreams were all set in a parallel world untouched by World War, until...
THE UNWILLING GUIDE: by E.M. Martin; 1914/12/29, a nightmare of occupied England
In a wood full of snipers, Martin has a hard moral choice: lead, leave or turn some possible spies...
DEATH CHANTY: by E.M. Martin's friend; 1914/9/21, a psychic dream
An endless parade of drowned sailors sing a dirge. The dreamer woke in tears. Then the news arrived.
NIC THE UNICORN: by Roger Martinez; 2013; a dream encounter
I met Nic as he steppd out of the elevator. We were both spooked. Nic asked if I believed in
mermaids and unicorns. I said “yes.” I asked Nic if he believed in dreamers, and after a pause...
EYEBALL MONSTERS: by Mary Ellen, 1979 or before; a helpful, self-explaining nightmare
A gang of young men breaks in. I lure them outside and lock my door. They break in again, and
this time they're scaly, tentacled monsters. But I ask why they're here, and to my surprise...
BOY SCOUTS: by a Maryland woman; pre-1961, a predictive warning dream
I dreamed my toddler son followed two Boy Scouts down to the creek, and drowned. That morning, on my curb, two...
A WIFE OR A GHOST: by Justin Masi; 2014? a surreal dream-painting-prose-poem on grief
My sister's fiancé Billy died a year ago. I didn't realize how deep the grief ran till I dreamed...
DON'T CRY, IT'S ONLY A DREAM: by a Massachusetts mom; pre-1961, a dream not predictive but telepathic!
As soon as I gave birth I had a nightmare my brother would be in a serious auto crash. When I warned my mom...
COMMUTE: by a Massachusetts woman, pre-1961, a recurrent telepathic prompt
I pick up my husband at the train station daily, but he never calls--I just know when he arrives...
NIGHT OF A THOUSAND DREAMS: by Chris Massie, 1927, a chaotic multiversal dream
I don't mind regular dreams. But when I dream a thousand dreams simultaneously,
I get overwhelmed--drowning in wonders. Is my brain doing this, or is it a message?
PANIC ATTACK IN MY SLEEP; 2012/1/11 by Rainier Mathee; a nightmare on every level
No work, no friends, no lover. People power-drill their own skulls. My uncle's going insane. And when I call 911...
CAUTION: BLEAK
SHE TOOK MY BALL: by Matt, 1994 or earlier, as told by Gayle Delaney; a sex-advice dream
After moving in with Gemina, Matt suddenly had erectile dysfunction. He asked
his dreams why. He dreamt he was a kid being bullied by his big sister Cindy...
BRIDGE-GUARD: by Alfred Maury, early 1861?; one of the first cryptomnesic dreams recorded
I found myself in childhood again, in a village where my dad was building a bridge. A man in a guard's
uniform introduced himself as C--. Awake I could recall no such person, but research revealed...
GUILLOTINE: by Alfred Maury; 1865, a dream researcher's most inexplicable dream
They led me to the guillotine. As the blade struck my neck,
I woke to find my headboard had broken loose and fallen on my...
IRENE'S DREAM: parallel (linked?) dreams by "Irene May" and Jack Kerouac, c. Aug 9 1953
IRENE tries to mold Francesca like clay to bring her back to life, and does--for a moment...
JACK finds his brother Gerard dead, and all Jack's words can't revive him...
ELEPHANT WITH A LOTUS: by Queen Maya, 564 BCE? a prophetic Buddhist dream
After 20 years without a child, Maya dreams devas carry her to a holy lake, wash her...
and then an elephant carrying a lotus flower enters her right side. She knows it means...
CAUTION: DREAM OMITS TINY DETAIL--IMMINENT DEATH
STACY BECOMES A BLUEBIRD: by Valerie McCarney, 2012 or 2013, a dream on letting your kids fly free
My daughter got a tattoo that spread and became blue feathers growing from her arms. Wings start to bud...
YESTERDAY: by Paul McCartney; c. March 1965, a dream-song.
"I liked the melody a lot, but because I'd dreamed it, I couldn't believe I'd written it..."
LITTLE NEMO'S BED: by Winsor McCay; c. 1906, a famous if probably fictional dream icon
Little Nemo's bed gets restless and takes him for a wild ride through town and up onto roofs...
DEERMAN'S CHALLENGE: by Melissa McClanahan, 2002?-2007?, a recurring nightmare figure
I used to dream of this violent anthropomorphic being. At times I'd put on his deer-skull head
and become him, inflicting and inciting violence. Naming him gave me some control...
TWO WITCHES: by Melissa McClanahan, 2013/9/8, a short painted dream-comic
Two witches, maiden and crone, ride a flying monster made of two magically fused trolls.
But I know somehow that the two are really just aspects of a single powerful sorceress...
ANNE SEXTON: by J.D. McClatchy; 1974/10/4, a predictive dream.
I dreamt my friend Anne Sexton's death was on the news.
I woke, the phone rang, and I learned she'd...
CAUTION: SUICIDE
MOSQUITO: by Kelly McCracken, 1994?, a dream of... bloodsuckers?
At first it's Michael J. Fox flirting with me, and I'm not excited, he's kind of a loser. Then it all changes,
and he's a monster mosquito humping me, and I hear someone saying "Do me, do me." Him? Or me?
CAUTION: SUBTITLED "THE UNSEXIEST SEX DREAM EVER"
FLIGHT, MARGARET, MOUSE, DOG: by Paul Nash, dreamed 1895-9 + Feb. 1913; art by Dave McKean
As a child, landscape artist Paul Nash dreamed of flying over the countryside
of southern England. But he was threatened by the legendary Black Dog...
CAKE HORSE: by Colleen D. McManus, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a surreal warning dream?
The cake horse resented my taking one slice out of him; but he let me.
No second slice, though! He just laughed at me--through his bad teeth...
STALAGMITE VALLEY: by Maude Meagher; 1902?-07, a recurring childhood dream.
I found myself upon a stone pillar in a valley. Invisible people sat on other stalagmites, but my voice couldn't reach them...
A WORD DREAM: by Maude Meagher; before 1936, a wild word-association dream.
I often dream of words forming on a page as their images dance around me. Here's an example...
I DREAM OF... ME: by Linda Medley; 1990 or 91, a dream-comic, the seed of Castle Waiting
I wake in a hobbit-hole. My love looks worried. What's wrong with me? A badger
takes me to see wizard Sean Connery, who gives me feathers to eat, and I become...
THE PERIODIC TABLE: by Dmitri Mendeleev; 1869/2/17, a dream solving a key scientific problem
"I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down..."
LINES COMPOSED IN SLEEP: by Owen Meredith; before 1887; a Kubla-Khanlike poem-shard
I dreamt an epic poem on a sinister ruined city now home
only to reptiles. I woke with at least a hundred lines, but...
MERLOO'S BROTHERS: by Joost Merloo, two apparent psychic nightmares, 1943 and c.1946
Joost Merloo escaped the Nazis, but had two neurologically impaired brothers who couldn't flee.
On a troopship, he dreamed the Nazis burst into their ward...
ANOTHER DREAM OF BURIAL: dreamed 2009 or before, by W.S. Merwin; poem of recurring dream
The garden varies, but I have always turned away and walked into the whole world. So far...
DREAM OF KOA RETURNING: dreamed 2009 or before, by W.S. Merwin; dream poem on a ghost dog
I reached back slowly hoping to touch your long amber fur wondering if you might be a dream...
FAR ALONG IN THE STORY: dreamed 2009 or before, by W.S. Merwin; a surreal dream poem
The flock of cranes called to the boy but he could not hear what they were telling him...
WITHOUT KNOWING: dreamed 2009 or before, by W.S. Merwin; a dream poem on flying
I was flying south so it was autumn, numberless autumn with its leaves already far below me...
NEW LIFE: by Deena Metzger, between Sept. 1982 & Sept. 83, an apocalyptic dream
Nuclear holocaust. Outside, an ashen waste. I decide to cut my wrists in the tub. But a corpse already fills it.
A man drives up. A voice commands "Make a child!" I protest--the world's gone--but the voice says...
ATLANTIS: 3: MICHAEL'S DREAM; c. 1993 dreamt by Michael; elegiac poem by Mark Doty
I dream I see the soul of my lover step out of his body, a second self of light...
CAUTION: AIDS DEATH
NUCLEAR NIGHTMARES: by Erica DeMane, Michael, Joanne and Scott; c.1984, four creepy dreams
Erica dreams that during a protest she's caught in a radioactive flood...
Michael dreams a nuclear forcefield makes his fingertips explode and congeal into weird knobs...
Joanne dreams she meets nuclear mutants with curling black nails great for peeling potatoes...
Scott dreams the world goes silent and white, bleaching out. His hands dissolve...
FLYING UNICORNS' GIFTS: by Lily Michaud; 2007/9/5, an advice-dream inside a flying dream
Flying unicorns hang out with me and my friends, sending us
dreams full of useful advice--and more concrete gifts...
CRUISE: by "Michelle", 1990s; a recurrent predictive dream
I never go on cruise ships but I keep dreaming I'm on one and meet the same man, and marry him.....
CLARENCE, GO THIS WAY: by a Michigan mom and son, pre-1961, a shared dream
I dreamed I sat high in a pine tree when my son stumbled through the woods, clearly lost. So I called...
Meanwhile my son, off at college, dreamed he was lost in a forest when he heard a voice above him call...
TITANIC NIGHTMARES: by J. C. Middleton; 1912/4/3 and 4/4, two predictive dreams saving two lives
I saw the Titanic go down and people struggling frantically in the water. After my second nightmare I told my wife...
F.I.P: by Dr A (c.1947), a Cambridge man (1960?), a London girl (c.1916) and a Midlands mum (July 1958)
Examples of inexplicable moods that appear (after the fact) to be reactions to future events...
MIKA'S DREAM HORSE: by Mika, August 1977, dream painting
At a dream workshop for kids in San Francisco,
Mika painted this dream-character...
HILL OF FIRE: by Mike and Wayan; 2022/9/10, short parallel dreams
MIKE'S DREAM: A volcano erupts. The lava pours into my hotel...
WAYAN'S DREAM: Our hill erupts in flame from a gas explosion...
LADDER OF FEAR by Mike & Wayan, 2021/2/9; parallel dreams
MIKE: A reckless friend races up a hazardous ladder. I follow slowly, reluctant, scared. Almost a nightmare...
WAYAN: Mike recklessly climbs an outdoor ladder as lightning strikes. Scary! Wait--this dream feels psychic...
CAUTION: APPARENT E.S.P.
THE RAPTURE OF MY DARK DREAM: by Edna St Vincent Millay; 1945?, a nightmare in free verse
Millay dreams her lover's attacked in the street, and wakes to realize it's already happened; he's lost.
SOME THINGS ARE DARK: by Edna St Vincent Millay; 1948??, a poem narrated by Nightmare
Millay, suffering from nightmares, decides to speak from Nightmare's point of view...
CARRIED UP: by Wayne Miller, 1972/3/3, epic nightmare turning transcendent
I'm in a huge colonnade. An army of blood-painted men sacrifice the dove of peace. Their masked leader drinks its blood.
But then I'm carried upstairs to meet... the prophet Daniel! I'm amid the angels, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...
CAUTION: BLOOD-DRINKING THUGS
DEAD, ALIVE, DEAD: by a Minnesota teacher; well before 1960, a predictive... something.
Mrs Brown was dead; I recalled helping at her bedside. My mother swore she was alive and I'd never met her! Then...
ARE YOU READY?: by a Minnesota woman; pre-1961, two predictive dreamlets, one useful
The elevator man in funereal black said in a sepuchral voice "Are you ready?" I decided I'd wait...
TRUE LOVE = CHOICE! by Ms. Mira; Jan. 2008, a dream-lesson on compassion and free will.
I'm on an alien world inside the minds of two women and a child struggling with moral choices in a civil war...
CAUTION: DEATH, LOSS
BIRDMAN TEACHES "NO!": by Miriel as told to Wayan; 1985/7/11, a poem on flight/assertion training
In the canyon behind our home, a steel-clawed birdman taught my brother and me to fly by shouting "NO!"...
CARSELVES: by Miriel; 1985/6/21, a predictive dream of putdowns
I dreamed I was a classic hippie bus. My brother was a lovingly customized Mustang. We
were real collector's items. So our parents decided to sell us. Their asking price was...
FALCON AND FÜHRER: by Miriel; 1985/7/31, an epic flying/transformation dream
A mysterious "Führer" hypnotized all my companions. So I become a human-sized falcon and hunt him...
FLYING IS TASTELESS: by Miriel; 1985/12/11, a warning dream
I dreamed I learned to fly. But my so-called friends
told me flight is tacky and I should stay grounded...
THE GHOST IN MIRIEL'S BUG: by Miriel & Wayan; 1985/10/1, an apparently shared dream
WAYAN: I dream a transparent ghost steals my sister Miriel's white VW bug...
MIRIEL: I dream about a ghost and my old white VW bug that was stolen...
CAUTION: E.S.P. CLAIM
LIZARD by Miriel, 2021/9/??, a dreamlet about a familiar?
I'm lying on a foam pad in a Volkswagen bus I remember from years ago
when a lizard half a meter long dances up to perch on my shoulder...
MIRIEL INTERRUPTUS: by Miriel and Wayan; 1978/9/5 and 1978/9/6; two embarrassing parallel dreams
Wayan dreams he and his sister grope toward sex in the kitchen, when two of her friends burst in...
Miriel dreams she's having sex with a boy from her choir, when two of her friends burst in...
CAUTION: FRUSTRATION, INCEST, CAUGHT IN SEX
THE SNAKE UNDER SOMEONE'S BED: by Miriel and Wayan, 1978/10/19, shared/telepathic dreamlets
Miriel dreams of a green snake under her bed. Meanwhile her brother
Wayan dreams of a green poisonous snake under his bed...
IRISES: by Frederic Mistral; 1834, a four-year-old's ecstatic dream
That day Frederic, craving irises, fell in the water three times. At night he swam through an iris paradise...
TORTOISESHELL GUILT: by 'Monk Eye'; 2014/9/9; a nightmare on spaciness and its risks
I was enjoying an evening with this generic guy. Although there were two cats
as big as bobcats in the room, I let Poodle, my tortoiseshell, in...
CAUTION: GRUESOME CATFIGHT
ICE: by Doug Montgomery; c. 1958, a surreal childhood dream
Drops fall outside. But it's not rain! It's dripping from a
gray-purple block of ice floating fifty feet above me...
SALLY: by Sy Montgomery, Jan. 2008?, an apparent dog-telepathy dream
I dreamt I was trying to save dying puppies; then a new dog appeared at our door, one
I was sure we had to find and adopt. We found Sally, and it turns out, when I dreamt
of doomed puppies, she was trapped in a freezing basement, trying to save hers...
CAUTION: PET ABUSE; APPARENT CROSS-SPECIES TELEPATHY
SQUISH!: by Farelle-Moon; early 2006, drawn 2006/4/6, a comic furry sex dream
I went to bed with a stuffed wolf, and found myself in a hot tub with a
cute wolf guy, only now I seemed to be the plush one...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
GOOEY DICK: by R. Moreau; c. 2015/12/25, c. 2016/3/12, 2016/3/26, a recurring ambivalent sex dream
I keep dreaming of sex with my friend Connor. But a wound on his dick oozes white gunk. He says it's common...
CAUTION: SEX, WEIRD GENITALIA
BRETON NUNNERY: by Mabel Morison, August 1911, a dream of a stranger's passing
Touring Bretagne, I lodged in a nunnery. At 1 AM I saw by moonlight an old woman at my table.
I later learned that old woman died at 1 AM that night; for many years, my room had been hers...
THE MIMI: by Robert Moss, 1955, a dream of another life
As a boy in Australia I briefly died on the operating table. I found myself living among the Mimi,
spirits living in rocks. I grew up, grew old, died--and woke up nine years old again...
SEA EAGLE: by Robert Moss, 20th century, a psychic dream
I dreamed a sea eagle I saw as a boy led me back to my native Australia, to a Dreaming place.
Later a 'spirit man' of the Mununajali in Queensland led me to the exact place I'd seen in my dream...
WORLDSTONES: dreamed fall 1895 & Aug 1898 by Mark Twain, & 2002/6/27 by Robert Moss
Mark Twain dreams we're cells inside God, and writes of Huck Finn among the microbes.
A century later, unaware of Twain's dreams, Robert Moss...
TARTAN ACID SPIDER TORPEDO: by "Thomas Mountain"; 2008/1/31, a cliffhanger dream.
I get speared by Irish warriors, slipped an LSD dose, chased by giant spiders, torpedoed--hey, I'm not bored!
NEW BRIGHTON MURDER: by Annie Howie Mudie; 1912/12/20, a sloppy oracular dream
Someone said "There's been a murder in the Victoria Hotel, and the murderer slept in your house." Three weeks later...
ANIMAL TRANSFIGURATION: by Edwin Muir; c.1920, a dream of an animal Resurrection
A man with luminous hair leads me out to a field where all the world's animals but one gaze at heaven...
BRIGHT BEAST, PATIENT BEAST: by Edwin Muir; c.1920, a dream of our primal struggle
Two beasts eternally fight, the proud bright peacock-tailed beast and the sad-eyed, ever-defeated sheepdog of...
FALL FROM A STAR: by Edwin Muir; 1920, a hypnogogic shamanic initiation
Escaping the tiny red plush room inside a star, I dive back to earth. Oops. A beast eats my broken body. My soul waits...
THE GODDESS OF WYRE: by Edwin Muir; 1925, a dream of soul-rebirth
After 25 years I land on my native island of Wyre, to touch an ancient clay figurine, who grows young and wakes...
LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN: by Edwin Muir; 1920, an epic hypnogogic shamanic initiation
Creatures in the primal sea touch my third eye, dragons cry their eyes out, I fight the Sphinx, and arrive at last in...
SISTER TO LIFE: by Edwin Muir; c.1920, a dream of shamanic healing
The glow seemed to come from within her, but I knew it flowed from my own breast. Her eyes fluttered...
TWO CENTURIES OF PROGRESS: by Edwin Muir; 1938-9, two dreams and an extraordinary mini-essay
Yesterday, Hitler marched into town. I was born before the Industrial Revolution, and am now about 200 years old...
MUIR AND BUTLER: by John Muir, August 2-4 1869; an intuition acted on.
Sketching on North Dome, thinking only of the glorious Yosemite landscape, I was suddenly
possessed by the notion that my friend Professor J. D. Butler was below me in the valley...
ERICEPAEUS: by a multilingual woman, c.1918/12/25; a psychic dream told to Jung
Jung's patient dreamed of a strange name, Ericipaeus. She didn't know Jung had been studying a minor god
named, he thought, "Ericapaeus". He'd misread the manuscript; the name was actually spelled a third way...
CATFISH RESCUE: by Nick Munford, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream of shamanic kindness
I run away. A car nearly hits me and I fall into the lake. But
a kindly catfish drags me to an underwater phone booth...
THE BOULDER DISSOLVES: by Myoe Shonin; mid Dec. 1230, an old monk's dream of liberation
I was trapped inside a boulder, but as I chanted it melted around me until it resembled a discarded skin...
DRINK THE DOVE: by Myoe Shonin; c.1202/9/11, a pre-Surrealist surreal dream
The sparrow died in the ashes, but the dove in my hands became a blue cloud.
I drank it, thinking "This will benefit us all"...
PEACOCK KINGS: by Myoe Shonin; 1196/8 or 1196/9, an ecstatic dream
I meet two Peacock Kings bigger than human beings, who chant blessings until I wake with tears drenching my pillow...
SHEEP IN THE SKY: by Myoe Shonin; c.1220/9/20, a dream of strange advice.
A strange transforming thing appeared in the sky--a light, a sheep, a man. It told me to stop burning my head...
ZEMMYO: by Myoe Shonin; c.1221/4/20, a spiritual Pygmalion dream.
A doll sent from China breaks into tears over her exile here in Japan. I reassure her and she becomes real...
MYRNA, LOOK AHEAD: by Myrna, drawn by her daughter Joey Epstein; before 1988, a dream of a revenant ghost's advice
After Myrna's husband gave up diabetes treatments to die at home, one night she felt him behind her in bed, and he whispered...
BLUE DROP: by Vladimir Nabokov; 1966/1/7, a dream-prose-poemlet
The supreme mystery which we learn after death is that the cosmos with all its galaxies is a blue drop...
CAUTION: HIPPIE DIPPIE
BREAKAWAY ISLAND: by Vladimir Nabokov; 1964/11/5, a travel-anxiety dream turned predictive
Hurry to the station to catch the train--or is it a sky tram? a ship? a hill? an island?
Climb its flank, but fissures open--it breaks up. I'm adrift. Next day, on TV...
EATING SOIL SAMPLES: by Vladimir Nabokov, 1964/10/17, a possible predictive dream.
In a museum, I absent-mindedly eat crumbly bricks I think are pastry; they really are rare soil-samples...
Three days later, I see a TV show I thought was on children. Wrong; it's on soil samples--that turn into eatables...
HARRY AND KUVYRKIN: by Vladimir Nabokov, 1916, a punning long-term predictive dream.
Nabokov's uncle left him a fortune but the Revolution took it. He dreamed his uncle said "I shall return to you as
Harry & Kuvyrkin." 40 years later filmmakers Harris & Kubrick paid Nabokov a fortune for the rights to Lolita...
TWO DEATH NOTICES: by Vladimir Nabokov; 1939/6/9 & Oct. 1945, two apparently predictive dreamlets
Khodasevich (1939): I dreamt a call announced my friend was dead. Really he was still alive--but not for long...
Sergey (1945): My brother died in January but the news took months to reach us. Just before it did, I dreamed...
TWO GUILLOTINES: by Vladimir Nabokov, 1973/1/9, a sustained hypnogogic delusion
Half awake, Nabokov interprets shadows as guillotines and believes he and his wife will be executed...
BAD NANCY!: by "Nancy"; March 1985, a prodromal/diagnostic dream
A second me punches me in the breast. I fight back, yelling
"Bad Nancy! Bad Nancy!" Five months later I find a malignancy...
JASON: by MariNaomi; 1989, a romantic-warning nightmare
The Mummy chases me, then unwraps his bandages to show the mutilated face of my boyfriend.
"I'm getting out of jail!" he says. Then the phone wakes me. My boyfriend. He says "I'm getting out of..."
CAUTION: CODEPENDENCE, MUTILATION, GUILT AND GRIEF
FLIGHT, MARGARET, MOUSE, DOG: by Paul Nash, dreamed 1895-9 + Feb. 1913; art by Dave McKean
As a child, landscape artist Paul Nash dreamed of flying over the countryside
of southern England. But he was threatened by the legendary Black Dog...
LANDSCAPE FROM A DREAM: by Paul Nash; recurrent dreams 1895-9, painted summer 1937
As a child, Paul Nash dreamt he flew over rural southern England.
As an adult surrealist painter...
THE MOUSE: by Paul Nash; Feb. 1913, surreal bedtime experience triggers surreal nightmare
We save a mouse from a man who claims he eats them. Later I dream I am the mouse...
NATALIUS' WELTS: by Natalius the Confessor, c.155 CE (or 199?), a dream leaving physical traces.
Natalius dreamed that angels whipped him for joining a heretic cult, and woke to find welts on his back...
NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S TREE: by King Nebuchadnezzar II; c. 583 BCE, a predictive dream
Nebuchadnezzar dreams a voice from heaven commands a great tree be cut;
Daniel interprets this as a prediction the king will go mad for 7 years...
MY SPLEEN: by Ned, as told by Gayle Delaney, 1979 or before, a diagnostic dream-pun
DAY: I write, exploring my jealousy toward my wife, though I know she's not cheating on me.
DREAM: Doctors remove my spleen and wake it up! Now my spleen is out to do me in...
NED'S KISS by Ned's mom and sister Ethel; pre-1961, cledonic dreams of a playful revenant
I wished I could kiss my son farewell. That week, Ethel called. "I dreamed Ned kissed you, not me!
I was hurt. He laughed like anything and kissed me too..."
ARTICHOKE PLATE: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1982 (March?); a punning dream
I realize the artichoke plate in my lap is a pun: ART! I CHOKE! I need to peel
off my thorny outer leaves of professionalism to find the heart inside...
BATHSHEBA AT BELVEDERE: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1982 (mid-Dec?); a subtly feminist dream
Boating, we land on a cape and find a house with a Rembrandt on the wall--Bathsheba
holding a letter from David her lover, pregnant with thoughts as well as child...
CAUTION: NUDE SKETCH
FISH BIRTH: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; c.1978/11/15; a nightmare
My little son accidentally tears the tail off our goldfish. The wound
looks vaginal. The fish, moaning in pain, turns into my daughter...
FISH REMAINS: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1985/9/18; a ritual closing-dream
On my 45th birthday, at the end of my eight-year dream-art project, I dream of a women's rite
turning scraps of chewed flesh into a whole fish I offer to the fishbowl in the heart of the Vatican...
FLYING FISH AND LOTUS: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1983/4/10; a dream of quiet transcendence
I catch a magical fish and let it go. A friend and I consider higher learning--and we don't mean academia.
My friend lays a lotus in a chair on the beach. A man baptises in sunset water, shining like a certain fish...
MAGIC FINGER: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1982 (May?); a nightmare veering into mystery
Morocco. Horseback mercenaries attack a town. A boy says "Take their lifestyle, and you must remove their brains."
A protective Hand of Fatima dissolves, leaving a finger, a feather, a... vagina. "What a slit!" We burst into laughter...
PLUMBER'S HELPER: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1981/12/8; a punning spiritual dream
A stopped-up mystical toilet gets cleared by an unexpectedly colorful tool;
but then, you never anticipate what'll unplug your, um, "head"...
POOL OF TRUTH: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1983/10/1; a dream of shamanic descent
Night. A massive crash on the highway. Bodies strewn. Sickened, I descend a spiral stair to the Pool
of Truth. It gives no answers. Women spout platitudes. I go on, in pain, down past the polar bears...
CAUTION: THE DEAD
PUBLIC EVENTS vs. SNAKES FROM INDIA: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1984/6-7, a dream contrasting faiths
I meet a Mormon art-educator I know. We're so different! Then I get a call
from India. My friend tells of an erotic Hindu bas-relief of women and snakes...
THREE WOMEN IN ONE: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1984/2/5; a multiple-self dream
Intimidated by stylish friends, I split in three--myself, and a small child
nursing at the breast of an earth-mother priestess--or Earth herself...
A GAMER'S DREAM: by Mark Nelson; 2002/3/5; A collage of real-world events brought into dreams
I face a barrage of deadly challenges out of every action film I've seen and every game I've ever played...
MY CHANCE: by Howard Nemerov, 1980 or before, a comic dreamlet
An actor-manager type is putting on Hamlet, and he offers me a role;
I'm breathless, my chance has come at last! He'd like me to play...
ENTER, NERO!: by Emperor Nero; c. 58 CE, a series of guilty surreal nightmares.
After murdering his mother, Nero dreams he's losing control: ships drift, statues chase him, and his own tomb says...
EXPLODING SWAN: by Aleksanteri Nevalainen; 2010/9; a surreal anxiety dream
In a world where ice contracts & sinks, birds freeze in winter, thaw in spring. But one swan knows better......
IT STINKS: by Aleksanteri Nevalainen; 2011/8/19, an accidental dream-incubation
Can dreams have taste and smell, I wonder? That night my dreams set out to show me...
TRANSFUSION by a New York woman; 1950s? 3 predictive dreams over a 5-year span
I dreamt of the Du Pont lab where I'd work, and my neighbor's future coffin,
and the hospital where my sister-in-law would get a transfusion...
FATIGUES: by Nicholas, c.1977, a punning diagnostic dream
I dreamed I was one of several soldiers about to be executed. I told my girlfriend the dream.
She asked "What were you wearing?" and I burst out laughing as I saw the pun: "Fatigues!"
I SWEAR by Nicholas, as told to Gayle Delaney, c.1988; a milestone dream
I was in front of the gods on Mt Olympus or in Valhalla. I was scared,
but swore an oath to follow my passions and no longer play it safe...
AN ETHNOHISTORICAL INTERVIEW: by Will & El Nichols, c.1935? ; linked dreams leading to treasure
Will and El each dreamed of gold buried under a walnut tree near Tulpehocken. They didn't talk about it, just
walked up there and dug. They never said how much they found, but they were rich for the rest of their lives...
NIETZSCHE EATS A TOAD: by Frederick Nietzsche; c.1867; a (prodromal?) nightmare
At a party, Nietzsche told a young woman "my hand was transparent as glass;
and a fat toad sat on my hand. I felt compelled to swallow it, and did..."
CAUTION: CREEPY DREAM, CREEPY FOLLOW-UP
THE LIBRARY: dreamed by Audrey Niffenegger between 1976 & 1982; an book-inspiring dream
I die. But then I find a door in my grandmother's pantry leading to a beautiful library...
TITANIC: by Nina; 1979 or before, an incubated nightmare
I ask how my relationship with Scott was going. That night he asks me to sail on the Titanic. I say
"That ship will sink!" but he won't listen. I see a skeleton-baby and know I have even more to lose...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE, UNFIT DAD, ABORTION
NINA'S RING: by Nina's clown, 1955/4/20, a lifesaving intuition
While rehearsing our circus act I mentally saw Nina's ladder breaking loose.
Next day, a supporting ring snapped. Being forewarned, I pulled hard...
DOCTOR OR LOVER? by Norma, as told to Gayle Delaney, 1994 or before; a therapist-inadequacy dream?
SITUATION: I was attracted to my prospective therapist. I asked my dreams what to do...
DREAM: His wife vanishes. We get in bed. I feel such love I ignore how tiny his penis is...
AFTER: In the morning, I decide I'd be wise to work with a different therapist...
CAUTION: SEX
PETE: by Norman, a soldier on Guam; 1944, either a ghost or hallucination with a lifesaving warning.
Pete told me to skip the shortcut. Only after I'd turned the truck around did I realize Pete had died weeks ago...
FIVE ELVISH DREAMS: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2005/6/10-2005/6/19, an incubated lucid-dream sequence
1: I visit Elrond and Bilbo in Elvenhome, but overthinking traps me in a timeloop;
2: Elrond says he renounces seriousness for joy, and plans a great, inclusive party;
3: I feel unworthy, but set out on a desert quest with Elrond's young apprentice;
4: I meet joyful, drunken, singing elves but hide in a tree, too shy to join in;
5: I meet a nervous elven singer and a dolphin trapped in a tiny pool in my bedroom...
TRAILER PARK ELF: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2001/11/18; a troubling dream of incompatible realms
I dreamed I was a blond guy tracking down an elf who lived in a trailer park. She'd gone mad; elves trapped
in the human world mostly do. Awake, I sketched her, then saw she's a lot like my younger self! Disturbing...
FEVER DREAM ON THE EVE OF ILLNESS: by Joyce Carol Oates, 1979/12/24? a nightmare of self as skyscraper
My body is a residential tower sheltering centipedes, basilisks, dragonflies, bagworms,
skeletal cranes; without my blood's heat and the moist caverns of my soul they would die...
ENVYING LYNN: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a positive-Shadow dream.
Lynn's changed. She everything I'm not--playful, colorful, free with her money.
She finds the coolest stuff. Why can't I find all that Lynn has?...
MOM IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a therapy-guiding initial dream.
My mom's driving me to work. A nearby car has young people in it--I'd rather be with them.
My mom seems to be dawdling; I'll be late meeting my colleague! I'm furious...
THE OCCUPATION: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a therapy-guiding initial dream.
Touring an underground maze, I meet a woman I like. But her brother bristles.
Then, from a height, I see the ventilation pits of the labyrinth laid out like a map.
The Japanese invade! Hide in the jungle. Women in rags butcher centipedes & mice...
CAUTION: UNHAPPY MEALS; OVER-JUNGIANISM
WABOSE'S VISION: by Catherine Wabose (Ogeewyahnoquot Okwa), Feb. 1814? shamanic initiation dreams
After fasting for six days, I dreamed of three spirit helpers who aided my village,
guiding hunters toward game and healing others. But I lost so many loved ones...
CAUTION: SPOUSE MURDERED; CAREER BURNOUT
GUARDIAN GHOST: by an Oklahoma girl; 1919, a dream (?) of ghostly advice
I dreamed my late stepdad warned me to stand by my mom--she'd be in trouble soon--gossip & blame...
EYE-SAVIOR: by an Oldham girl, c.1784; a curative (not merely diagnostic) dream
I had gone blind in one eye. I dreamt our Savior came to me, and when I woke, I could see...
BABY'S COMING: by Bruno Oliveira; late summer 2011, a genderbent dream
I'm very pregnant and feel bloated. My mom says "That's what you get for not using a condom"...
A RETRIBUTION OF MERMAIDS: by Bruno Oliveira; summer 2011, a treasure-finding dream
Despite corporate crooks, missiles and floods, Angelina Jolie and I find the lock of mermaid hair...
WAR IN THE RING: by Bruno Oliveira; May 2011, a happy nightmare
War, monsters, plague and bombs are just thrills spicing up
this city rising from a tropical sea on an alien world...
FROM THE BOOK OF TIME: by Mary Oliver; c.1998, a poem of a transformation-dream
The white horse, Earth, ambles on between the stars, and then unfolds into a swan...
THE TAKEOVER: by Lee Olivier; 2004/6/28, a triple diagnostic nightmare
An alien is taking over our world, and I feel so helpless that even when I wake I want to just forget the dream...
O'Neal, Shawn Allen: see SAO
MEAD'S ADVICE: by Beverly O'Neill; c.1977? 78? a dream on seeking a female rolemodel
I try hard not to invade Margaret Mead's privacy, but I need her advice;
after I find a fruit true growing in a forgotten room, she unbends...
OWL TAVERN: by Dan O'Neill; before 1994/11/2, a dream-comic
I stumble into a bar where the TV stars from my childhood are
drunkenly arguing metaphysics--Howdy Doody, Beany & Cecil, Flipper...
CHESTERFIELD MOVER: by an Oregon woman, 1943, a "meaningless yet profound" predictive dream
I helped my aunt and uncle move upstairs from their rented downstairs flat. Absurd! They own a one-story house they love...
OSMAN'S DREAM: by Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, 1280?, a predictive dream
The moon rises from my friend's body, and sinks into mine. Then
a great tree grows from my body, covering much of the world...
CAUTION: ORAL TRADITION AT BEST
CARSON: by Kitty Ostrander; 1991/6/23; an apparent clairvoyant dream
I DREAM: I'm at the scene of a fatal car crash. They thought it was Johnny Carson, but it's his brother Dick.
I WAKE: On the news: Johnny Carson's son Dick died in a car crash. The scene looks like my dream...
CAUTION: WILL TROUBLE E.S.P. SKEPTICS
MY DREAM OF CELIBACY: by Sibbie O'Sullivan, c.1984, a flirty lost-opportunity mermaid dream
I lie on the bottom of the pool. The life guard lifts me in his strong arms. We flirt till my legs fuse, ready to go deep;
but he says "It's only a part-time job" and turns away. In day, the highschool pool lies empty, widowed of water...
DIPHTHERIA SPECK: by an Outback man; pre-1961, a diagnostic dream with a tight deadline
I dreamed our physician said our son had diphtheria. When I woke, we found only a tiny
white spot in his throat. But by the time the doctor arrived...
CROW RIDE (ONE-WAY TICKET): by J.P., c.1920, a trickster dream
A crow offers me a ride. I hang on tight and he flies me up into a beech tree where lots of other crows
perch and talk. Then he flies me to another tree and leaves me. I think "How am I gonna get down?"...
MUSKRAT, OTTER, MINK: by J.P., c.1900, a trapper's shamanic-fistfight dream
Three men chase me. I can't get away so I turn and fight, and put out one guy's eye. That makes them pause!
At last they back away. As they paddle away in a boat, I realize who they are: Muskrat, Otter and Mink...
CAUTION: ANTHROPOLOGISTS!
AS A HILLSBOROUGH CHILD: by Barbara Gordon Paine; c.1960, a poem on a child's ear for idioms
As a Hillsborough child I never heard the crash of twentynine
walled streets that fell with a force that moved us away...
TIME WITH A NIGHTHEAD: by Barbara Gordon Paine; c.1960, a nightmare-poem on overconfidence
A toy's delivered, unasked. A jumping jack. It tries to eat me! I defeat it but then peer in the box to be sure...
WOLVES SITTING IN A TREE: by Sergei Pankejeff; winter 1888 or '89, a nightmare Freud made famous
When I was very small I dreamt a pack of wolves climbed the tree outside my window and
somehow got it open. Freud told me I must have seen my parents having sex doggy style...
CAUTION: REALLY, DR. FREUD?
NIGHTMARE STUDIO: by Gary Panter, 2003, a 5-page comic of his lonely surreal dream world
(plus a 2018/8/31 dream by Wayan provoked by Panter's dream art)
Rather than a dream narrative, this is a tour through Gary's common dreamscapes--
forgotten places, empty streets. Or ones you wish were empty...
BAND-AIDS: by Bagheera Pardus; c.1985, a lucid re-entered nightmare turned to joy.
Giant snakes chased me. I go lucid, turn & slay one. As I woke, the snakes cried. So I re-entered...
CAUTION: SNAKES, BEHEADING, REHEADING
THE M9: by David Parkinson, 1940; a dream-designed invention.
Parkinson dreamed his new telephone device got added to an anti-aircraft gun. He told his dream;
guns with M9 units turned out to be so accurate it gave the British hope against the Luftwaffe...
PAT'S WARNING: by Pat, Allen and Gerry; 1947, a ghostlike warning from a living person's unconscious
In occupied Germany, Pat flags down two friends just before a truck crash. Except...
Pat was in England at the time. She sensed they were in danger, but...
BARN OWL FUSION: by Patagia; 2006/3/9, linked transformation and flying dreams
An owl flew at me, and I fused with it. The next thing I knew, I was a redtail hawk...
CROWS USE: by Patagia, before 2007/1/2, a cynical bird dream-poem
Tossing out old papers, I find a dream about crows who
whack pigeons with baseball bats, ending with this moral...
CROCODILE DREAM: by Patagia; 2015/10/5, a nightmare-poem on recklessness
Closer I edge to admire their scales, the glint of their teeth, and shape of their tails. They cast a strong spell...
FOR WORLD DREAM BANKERS: by Patagia; 2007/9/21, a praise-poem for dreamers
Dreamwork takes discipline, but writing and painting dreams for others takes even more: courage!
FAKE IT!: by Electra Johannes and Patagia; 2007/9/22 and 2007/9/23, linked dreams.
Patagia dreams she fakes a Hindu rite, causing Electra to dream she fakes leadership in a refugee band. But are they faking?
HUNT AND PECK: by Patagia; 1997/6/16, a dream on the creative non-struggle.
I'm a brown sparrow scratching in the dirt, looking for bugs. Focused, tireless, I hunt and peck...
LIFE FORCE: by Patagia; 2006/8/9 & 8/31, three career-advice dreamlets
Out of a Campbell's soup can poured life force: someone's last breath...
LION EYES: by Patagia; 2007/11/??, a serious dream-prank.
Lions trap me in an African cave with only coffee, paper and pens! Is this what it takes to get me to write?
NOUVELLE BARBIE BODS: by Patagia, 2012/12/22, a playful poem on a dream-diorama
I visited my friend Chris Wayan's workshop and found him building
a dance troupe of joyfully obscene centaurs out of Barbie dolls...
SLUGS: by Patagia; 2010/11/24, a molluscan dream poem
My friend and I are banana slugs on the forest floor. We wander out into chaparral, and across a bike path...
SIGNALS: by Patagia, 2009/11/5, a dream-poem on the conflicting demands of creative life
I dream I'm trying to understand how I write poetry, but then I recall my daughter's sick
from a bad prescription. So I try to research her illness, but our library's renovating...
WITNESS: by Patagia, 2006/2/16, a poem of a redemptive nightmare
A woman I had wronged set her pit bull on me! Hand in its jaws, I gave in, and we both began crying...
WRITE A LITTLE DREAM WITH ME: by Patagia, 2015/10/16, a comic poem on dreamwork
Sharks unicorns and moonbeams / Lost loves and karma chocolate I-beams
Raw telepathic bundles of beans / Write a little dream with me...
NAPPING IN PATERSON: by a Paterson mom; pre-1961, a lifesaving intuitive flash
I was downtown when I knew I had to hurry home. I found it full of gas.
As my husband napped, our two-year-old had turned on all the stove jets...
THUMBSUCKER!: by a patient of William Hammond, c.1868, an epic comic taste dream
I paint my thumb with bitter aloes to break my habit of sucking it at night. I dream of
wormwood, ox gall, mineral salts. I consult Dr. Save Me and even the Pope, but...
HOT FEET: by Patient 2 of William Hammond, c.1868, a nightmare--but subliminal or mystical?
I'm in the Rocky Mountains. Gold-hungry Mexican bandits capture me and put my feet to the fire,
demanding "How do you transmute copper into gold?" I scream "I don't know!", waking to find...
CAUTION: TORTURE PLAYED FOR LAUGHS
THE AXE OF DEATH: by Catherine McDiarmid Paton; c. 1830, a grisly predictive nightmare.
She dreamt Death attacked her but her youngest kids bravely fought back--and died. 3 months later...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
IN THE CAMP (THE NAKED POEM): by Karl Patten; 1972/10/27; a death-camp poem dictated in a dream
Fat Max eats with Heinrich the guard on Tuesdays. He talks too much. You and I are hungry. Tonight...
The poem appeared in the dream as it appears on the page--words, even punctuation...
CAUTION: DEATH CAMP, DEATH PLOT
BOGUS: by Ed Pell; 1990/11?; a financial forensic dream
DAY: I'm preparing a report on our industry; but the numbers seem a bit odd.
DREAM: Someone points out a big inventory generated no sales or income.
NEXT DAY: Awake, I hunt for evidence the inventory's real. And find...
EAGLE AND GEESE: by Penelope of Ithaka; c.1240 BCE, a subliminal, self-interpreting dream
I dreamt an eagle slaughtered my twenty geese. I wept until he spoke to me: "Take heart! I am thy husband..."
SNOT-BIRD FORGERY!: a dream by Samuel Pepys, 1667/6/29, & a nightmare by Thomas Macaulay, c.1857
Samuel Pepys dreamt of kidneystones, pee, come, & snot--or did he? Thomas Macauley dreams his niece confesses...
THE ARREST: by Georges Perec; July 1970, a dream of .... huh? Dream #16
I am arrested in Tunisia, essentially for being Jewish, despite my pro-Palestinian sympathies.
My main regret: I face years of dirty socks...
THE BONE: by Georges Perec; March 1971, a dream on vulnerability failing to teach empathy. Dream #64
The top of my skull pops off, exposing my vulnerable brain. But I replace it. Later, I crush a spider...
BREAD LIBERATION: by Georges Perec; March 1971, a dream of a lame revolution. Dream #60
Mobilization, war, troop transport, slogans, marching bands and orgies, all in an apotheosis of dough...
CAUTION: ENDS IN SEX
THE CONDEMNATION: by Georges Perec; Feb. 1972, a dream of cults, persecution, and timeslip. Dream #105
I'm on vacation, but cultists lick my feet--then turn on me, casting stones. But they miss.
So I wander the steppe for centuries, until I come to the City of Texas...
THE DENUNCIATION: by Georges Perec; August 1972, a dream of war-trauma finally healing? Dream #124
1941. My dad and I are denounced to the SS. We're put in with monsters; I'm a snake or fish myself.
But the Nazis become a photo album, I go to a memorial, I cry, it's 1947, peace...
CAUTION: HOLOCAUST MEMORIES
FAREWELL: by Georges Perec; January 1969, a dream prose-poem of loss foreseen. Dream #6
Dream of a breakup I see coming but can't prevent, and the devastation it works on my lover...
A GENERAL HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION (AN EXCERPT): by Georges Perec; April 1972, his Dream #115
Parking structures with spiral ramps are, secretly, screws harvesting motion from parking cars, slowly drilling
into near-impenetrable rock. Thus are skyscraper-foundations made...
THE HYPOTHALAMUS: by Georges Perec; October 1971, a dream of embarrassment. Dream #95
I learn my book A Void, supposedly written without the letter E, has lots of them--
crawling with errors. But at least I can spy on the neighbors...
ILLUSION: by Georges Perec; December 1968, a prose-poem of a nested false-waking dream. Dream #4
I am dreaming. She's beside me. I tell myself I'm dreaming. I wake. She really is beside me. Delirious joy. I embrace her. I wake...
INTRUDER: by Georges Perec; Feb. 1971, a dream unsure if it's warning, erotic, subliminal or psychic. Dream #50
Someone's broken in, prowling my apartment. Man or woman? The scent gives her away.
I wake, calling aloud "What is it?" Moments later, C. knocks on my door...
THE PLAY: by Georges Perec; February 1972, a dream with the attention span of a gnat. Dream #108
I'm in a play. Fear, then joyful sex, then ranching, then silly hats, as a man drones on about
class struggle. Weird chairs, pingpong, coffee, impossible double utterances. At last
I tell friends my dream--backwards. Then I write the dream down on slices of cheese...
CAUTION: SEX ONSTAGE
THE STONE BRIDGE: by JL; 1968, as told to Georges Perec; a surreal, haiku-ish dreamlet. Dream #39
A stone bridge, at the crossing of a road and a river. A signal sign indicates the name of the place: (YOU)...
THREE CATS: by Georges Perec; April 1972, a painful comic dreamlet. Excerpt from Dream #114
I go home. Our cat is there. And a small, striped new cat. Then I step on a third, much bigger cat.
This is just one cat too many! "This cat's not real!" I say...
The nonexistent cat leaps up and scratches my face.
THE VENDOR: by Georges Perec; July 1971, a nightmare of societal amorality. Dream #77
I murder my wife. I try to sell her body as meat to a firm that'll turn her into wine.
But the transubstantiation has already happened, and the paperwork's undone...
CAUTION: GRISLY
PERPETUA'S LAST DREAM: by St Perpetua; 203 CE, a flying, sex-changing, defiant dream.
Facing death the next day in a Roman arena, Perpetua dreams of the spiritual duel behind the physical one...
PAPER BAG: by Pete Peterson, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a comic dreamlet
God issued me a paper bag to go over my head & protect my eyes
when facing him--at first. But as I advanced spiritually, I tore...
CLAIRAGONY: by a Philadelphia woman, Aug 1951, a sympathetic heart attack her mind misattributes
I had a heart attack--but it faded in minutes! The phone rang. I knew at once my dying mother was gone...
HOGAMUS HIGAMUS: by Mrs Amos Pinchot, or Claire MacMurray? Nov. 1939, a disavowed dream-poem.
She dreamed she'd written a wise and beautiful poem. Half asleep she scribbled it down. Awake, she found...
CAUTION: HOGGEREL
MY EXPERIENCE OF LUCID DREAMING: by Maria Isabel Pita; August 2013, dreambased photomontage
Superimposed photos and movie stills show my typical lucid dreaming--I look at my hands,
realize I'm dreaming, dance for joy, meet a guide, fly to strange places--best of all, Egypt...
BUFFALO PERSON: by Plenty Coups, summer 1857; a child's time-traveling, tribe-saving dream
I was led into the future, where all the buffalo disappeared, to meet a frail old man by a ranch house...
COUNT COUP!: by Plenty Coups, 1857; a child's defining dream
I sought a dream of Helpers. But rather than give me gifts, they gave me a daunting challenge...
HORSE THIEVES: by Plenty Coups, early 1870s?; a practical psychic or subliminal dream
Thieves stole 100 of our horses. The tracks suggested white men, but that night
my dream Helpers declared them Sioux. We tracked them across Montana...
NOCTURNAL HAIRCUTS: by two of Pliny the Younger's servants; 96 CE. Subliminal? Oracular? Prank?
Two boys dream robed figures climb in the window to cut their hair--and find, awake, someone has. While Pliny...
MY PEGASUS: by Regina van der Poel; 2000/6/1, a dream of my Life Painting
I free a friend unjustly imprisoned. On the run, we encounter our Life Paintings.
Mine is a beautiful pegasus flying. But on its back is a monkey in a red suit...
WHITE HORSES, FIVE TALENTS: by Regina van der Poel; 1999/10/29, a dream equinifying talents
I meet a man in a box. A mob wants to attack him. But five white horses defend him! Well, one's
really a unicorn. I know each horse is a talent, but only recall one when I wake: clairvoyance...
DREAM HERDING: by Nancy Potter; 1978/11/8 & 11/11, two comic, surreal dreams
FERRY: the crossing is rough, but I'm warned I must find my own sea-legs...
BUZZ OFF: I step into a family photo, but I'm not welcome in the past...
BROKEN GLASS by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of working to death.
Helping out talking animals until I'm exhausted, I suffer a fatal accident. What am I being warned of?
BUT AS YESTERDAY by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of being sacrificed
Our gods demand sacrifices. I let Mother mutilate me so I'd be unfit. But the priests turn out to be blind...
CAUTION: YOU CAN FEEL PAIN IN DREAMS
CHASM by Nancy Price; 1948, a telepathic nightmare.
The scenery's so lovely my mother walks off a cliff! As I wake, a neighbor falls out a high window...
DEAD OR ALIVE? by Nancy Price; 1948, a surreal, poetic dream from the borderzone
Troutmet the moon-pigeon, Burtra the blackbird, a talking acacia,
my dead father and my dead gardener all give me afterlife-advice...
EXPERIMENT WITH TIME by Nancy Price; 1948, a shamanic-initiation dream declined?
I meet a girl who's 16 and 61, who tells me dreams are lives, not messages.
But then I must fly over a sinister parade...
THE EYE by Nancy Price; 1948, a nightmare of resisting torture
A staring Eye tries to break me; his cats & robots flay me. Yet his birds rebel in sympathy, & I refuse to die...
THE FEARFUL INSECT by Nancy Price; 1948, an episodic circular nightmare unified by a leitmotif
A bug with a horse-skull face reappears all through this nightmare of betrayal. I only know I feared it...
FILM STARS by Nancy Price; 1948, a surreal predictive/diagnostic dream
I'm a film actress, but the producer isn't happy with my legs, so make-up takes them away to be redone...
FOUR WHO COULD ONLY GET HALF-WAY by Nancy Price; 1948, a frustration-dream with deep advice
I'm one of four mediocrities: all our efforts come to nought. Mum says "You're netted, but you can fray the ropes...
HAIL AND FAREWELL by Nancy Price; 1947/6/6, a revenant dream-message
A dying colleague haunts me all night. He says "crossings are often unpleasant" but death's not bad...
I AM A BIRD by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of another life... well, two.
I live as a small falcon, glad I'm no longer human. But when that life ends...
JUMBLE by Nancy Price; 1948, a comically exaggerated predictive dream
A bewildering dream of a boy's borrowed bath, absconding renters' furniture and fly-eating turns real a few weeks later...
LET THERE BE LIGHT by Nancy Price; 1948, a nightmare of helplessness
Snakebite! I'm hooked to a health-monitor. If a red light comes on, I'm doomed. But voices start whispering...
NO TRAVELER RETURNS by Nancy Price; 1948/2/2, a predictive dream
I don't love my husband, so I'm stranded in the hotel between life & death, from which...
THE OTHER ROOM by Nancy Price; 1948, a predictive dream
A writer I haven't seen for 40 years gives me a drink, but all I want is to find my mom in The Other Room...
RED LIGHT by Nancy Price; 1948, a predictive dream of the past!
I'm in my home town, but at two times at once! Murderous boys explain why: I died here in 1861...
SNOW by Nancy Price; 1948, a false-waking dream about living vs survival
Lost in the snow, I must give my baby to a stranger or let my dad put him in a box, safe, forever...
SONG by Nancy Price; Nov. or Dec. 1948, a transcendent music dream
Numb, sunk in a trance, I only woke when I broke through a wall to light and magical birdsong...
STRANGE AUDITION: by Nancy Price; 1948, a predictive theatre-dream
I dream the actors auditioning for George Bernard Shaw’s play are blends of human, avian, and lion.
Next morning I find a card from Shaw asking if I'd fancy playing a lion in his...
TAWNY OWL by Nancy Price; April 1948, a dream of muses
On the road with a poet and a philosopher, I insist we rescue an owl.
But we get lost, and the poet turns into...
TENNIS UNDER STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES by Nancy Price; 1948,
(A comic frustration dream hiding a warning)
Our tennis game's spoiled by rubber rackets, fierce grandmas,
Good and Evil (those identical twins) and a bully on stilts...
TROUT BECK by Nancy Price; summer 1933, an aerial comic dream-epic
I'm carried off by a crane to meet birdfish, singing sheep, fell-spirits, mad shopkeepers and devil-bulls...
THE WHEEL by Nancy Price; 1948, an early, intense dream of Future Shock.
Lost in an industrial maze, my memories hopelessly outdated, I resign myself to the Wheel...
WINGS by Nancy Price; 1948, two bird-people dreams, one psychic
I have a long chat with two songbirds. Next I'm a parrot, living in rainforest. Then the mail comes...
RED UNCLE, RED CANYON: by JB Priestley; c.1907 and c.1925, two dreamlets looking years ahead
As a boy I dreamt my uncle (a calm man) glared at me in red rage; I was terrified. A decade later, in a bar...
I dreamt I saw, over a balcony rail, bright-colored, spectacular scenery. Years after in Arizona, I took a detour...
LADY UNICORN: by Cindy Prince; 2007/10/16, a dream of a shapeshifter.
I was working in the library, talking to this woman who announced "I think I'll grow my horn now..."
SEVERED HEAD: by Dr. Walter Prince, 1917/11/27, a detailed predictive nightmare
DREAM: a thirtyish blonde says her death is ordered. Her head's cut off. But it won't die--bites his hand!
Dr. Prince feels the dream shouts "premonition!" and writes an account at the Society for Psychical Research.
Next night, a thirtyish blonde nearby commits suicide, leaving a note saying her severed head will live on...
CAUTION: CREEPY DREAM, CREEPIER NEWS
MY HUSBAND'S DEATH: by Gertude Pritchard; 1922, a predictive dream
I made my way through a great crowd to find my husband lying dead behind velvet curtains. Two years later...
THE BOATMEN OF LAOLONG: by Viceroy Zhu, before 1679, as told by Pu Songling; an incubated dream
Traders were vanishing. Newly installed Viceroy Zhu fasted, focused, and dreamt
the gods sent him a riddling poem. Each line suggested one word--together, they...
CAUTION: BRUTAL ORGANIZED CRIME
THE FLYING COW: by a cow-buyer, as told by Pu Songling; before 1679, a perverse predictive dream?
A farmer dreamt his new cow grew wings and flew away. Next day, he sold that cow at a heavy loss. Walking
home with the cash, he found a tame falcon, and tied its leg to his moneybag. One guess what the bird did...
MR. WILLOW AND THE LOCUSTS: by a Yi Valley magistrate, Dec. 1641?, as told by Pu Songling; a shamanic dream
As locusts advanced on his farm district, a magistrate dreamt a Mr. Willow had advice.
He took it. Bearing a gift of rice wine, he sought out the Goddess of the Locusts, and...
PRINCESS LILY: by Dou Xun, as told by Pu Songling; before 1679: recurring psychic dreams, or fiction?
Dou dreams he marries Lily; when a monstrous snake attacks her huge family, he reluctantly hosts
them all... when he wakes, they turn out to be bees driven from their hive by a (very real) snake...
THE WOLF DREAM: by Mr. Bai, as told by Pu Songling; before 1679, a predictive dream, or fiction?
Mr Bai dreams his son the mandarin is a tiger leading a pack of wolves--all man-eaters,
at least until two angels knock out his fangs and predict he'll get beheaded soon...
CAUTION: CANNIBALS, REVENGE KILLINGS
CIRCLES OF BONE: by Linda Puffer, 1977/4/27, a poem on a surreal body-image dream
I realize a bone is protruding between my left armpit and breast. I put Maria's hand on my breast and
ask her to feel the bone. But no one grasps what it really is--something sticking out from my heart...
ALL THE ANIMALS: by Sharon Lynn Pugh; c.1986, an epic, species-bent, funny, feminist dream-within-a-dream
I'm a fox-woman. A human man courts me--insultingly. I dream my brain grows till my head hurts,
till it splits open, till light gets in. I rant at the last dragon. Strange but kindly, he gives me a picnic...
THE ENTWINED CHILD AND MADAM PURR-SAY: by PurplePurplePurple; 2013/7/5, twin poem-dreams
I dream my autistic son, miraculously high-functioning, recites a math-poem to a crowd...
Then I become cartoon cat Madam Purr-Say and chant my own defiant poem at the dream gods...
CAUTION: FIRST POEM AUTISTIC, SECOND PISSY
THE DREAM: by Pierre Puvis de Chavanne, c.1882: a temptation dream?
Subtitled "In his Sleep he Saw Love, Glory and Wealth Appear to him". Is it a real pre-Freudian dream
on being tempted by three powerful allies of the Id... or just allegory? I have my doubts...
TIME WARP: by "Erwre Qerwgeqwr"; 2010/2/5, a nightmare recurring 4 times in one night
A timewarp started to swallow my house. It looked normal outside, but everyone inside was in a trance...
THE OWLS OF THE GATEKEEPER ON THE FOREST BRIDGE: by Brian Quinn; 2009/7/15, a shamanic invite
I'm pulling a cart in the woods. At a bridge over a canyon, owls urge me to climb down into the misty abyss, but...
"TELL HIM I SAW HIS HEAD IN A BOX": by James Quinn; Jan/Feb 2003; peculiar ghost dream
Inside a Renaissance reliquary, I see a dried-up head--but is it St. Sixtus really? Weeks later...
I dream I'm in a cafe joking with my mom's ghost. I say "If you meet a guy called St. Sixtus, tell him..."
CAUTION: READ THE TITLE
FLU PRESCRIPTION: by Qu'lad and Togumalis, 1918 or 19, two shaman's dreams that saved lives
Qu'lad, dying of flu in the pandemic, dreamt a wolf told him cold-water baths would save him. He staggered to the river. He lived. He told others.
They lived. The shaman Togumalis dreamt his spirit helper, a squirrel, prescribed the same. A century later, hospital records show why it worked...
CAUTION: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE SHOWN AS SUPERIOR
FETAL SLIDESHOW: by Rachel; c.1973, a misinterpreted recurrent diagnostic dream
I dreamed at least weekly I had to view a slide showing something wrong with my fetus.
I assumed the dreams expressed doubts about motherhood--until my miscarriage...
RAGNHILD'S TREE and HALFDAN'S CURLS: by Queen Ragnhild and King Halfdan of Norway; c.850 CE
twin dreams predicting their children and nation will prosper.
Ragnhild sees a lovely tree rooted in her pain and blood;
Halfdan sleeps with pigs and dreams he has a great head of hair...
CAUTION: KIDNAPPING, ARSON, GENERAL BARBARISM (check the date!)
BIRDS OF DREAM: by Kathleen Raine, between 1981 & '87; a mystical dream poem
Colorful birds swirl round me. They may be natives of Paradise--may be, in fact, avian angels...
THE CRYPT: by Kathleen Raine, between 1965 & '71; a chthonic dream poem
Holding a luminous crystal sword, I enter a crypt where a king lies--ill, not dead.
An old woman wants to punish him, but as he stirs, I sheathe my sword...
DREAM FLOWERS: by Kathleen Raine, between 1953 & '65; a dream florifying dreams
I dreamt I was given verbena sprigs--from my mother, I'm told. But am I me, Persephone, or all the daughters given love by all the mothers?
A DREAM OF ROSES: by Kathleen Raine, between 1965 & '71; a colorful warning dream
I walked a vast rose garden, but all were Ophelia's yellow blooms of love forsaken; not one was the color of love's true flower...
THE ELEMENTALS: by Kathleen Raine, between 1953 & '65; a shamanic dream of earth-spirits
Giant presences; rock, hill and crag are aspects worn. Shape-shifters they are; each in as many forms as eyes behold...
THE HOLLOW HILL (PART 6): by Kathleen Raine, 1940; a dream elegy to a mentor
In Ireland, in Yeats's stone tower, he leads me up the spiral stair toward a thyme-scented portal...
LAST NIGHT I SEEMED: by Kathleen Raine, between 1978, '79 or '80; a revenant dream poem
Last night I seemed in your embrace; you were about to die.
Today I wake into my place: you immortal, I...
MANSION OF THE DEAD: by Kathleen Raine, between 1974 & '77; a nightmare
I roamed the mansion of the dead, my heart athrob with terror, lest
I see faces, not human, that once shone on me with familiar love...
NAMED: by Kathleen Raine, between 1981 & '87; a mystical dream poem
A voice calls to me by name--but not the name I now bear, evoking memories of another life...
NOVEMBER DREAM: by Kathleen Raine, between 1974 & '77; a longing dream poem
In my dream I walk through golden glowing woods; I wake to a soggy London November...
THE RIVER: by Kathleen Raine, between 1965 & '71; two mystical dream poems on dropping the ego
I tossed the crystal decanter of my self into the river, and watched it float away...
SOLILOQUY #5: by Kathleen Raine, between 1988 & '92; an ultrashort dream-poem
I set out in a dream / To go away / Away is hard to go, but no one / Asked me to stay...
TOLD IN A DREAM: by Kathleen Raine, between 1965 & '71; a mystical dream poem
A voice tells me I have 100 months to live. I vow it'll be enough to finish my work here...
CAUTION: THAT VOICE WAS WRONG
BULLFIGHTERS' BRAIN MODEL: by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1927/8/9; a silly dreamlet
I dream I'm at a center for bull fighting, teaching the structure of the brain, but
they believe the brain is a structureless gelatin and the soul is all...
MORNING DREAM: by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1926/12/12; a dream modeling the mind
I dream I'm ranting about the structure of the mind, postulating four layers--odd, since
I think dreams are meaningless--just neurons getting some exercise! So whence this theory?
CAUTION: JARGON
TERRIBLE DREAM, TACTILE DREAM (EVENING ESPRONCEDA): by S. Ramón y Cajal, c.1930; a nightmare
Doctors remove my upper skull and sew my scalp over my brain.
I can get around, if I stay upright, but I'm terribly vulnerable...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE REFLECTS REALITY
THREE CLASSES: by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1928/12/10; a dream on scientific integrity
I dream I'm teaching my students that those willing to let evidence change their minds are rare.
Climbers seek fame and status, while iconoclasts seek to upset order without regard for truth...
CAUTION: SOBERING FROM A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER
WAR BETWEEN LIBERALS & REACTIONARIES: by S. Ramón y Cajal, 1929/5/26; a predictive dream?
There is a war between liberals and reactionaries, but the dream makes no
sense: friends claim to be hit, to be wounded, but I see no bodies, no blood...
CAUTION: ANTICIPATES THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
REDNECKS: by Tad Ramspott; c. 2000/10/20, a dream of shadows and underdogs
I face two gunmen fleeing an invasion of dragons I support--since inside I'm a dragon. But I won't hurt them. Why?
DON JUAN AND THE FLYERS: by 'Rasselon'; 2009/12/17, a shamanic dream about focus.
Winged things lurk in the shadows. When I focus on them, they attack! Castaneda's teacher watches amused...
FOUR DRAGONS: by 'Rasselon'; 2009/11/24, a dream of aerial duels
By a lake I've seen in many dreams, four dragons attack. I become one too, and duel them in mid-air...
OLDER AND YOUNGER: by 'Rasselon'; 2009/11/17, a dream of erotic deviousness
The older sorceress I'm in bed with plans to marry me off to a younger woman, but I distract her with my tongue...
CAUTION: BEDROOM HUMOR
THE LAST JUDGMENT: by Esther Raucher, c.1950; a childhood dream grows into a big sculpture group
I fled a snake by flying. I felt guilty, I knew it was cheating. Years passed. I made tiny clay figurines.
Years passed. I drew a chicken lady with a halo. Years passed. I sculpted a flock of BIG...
CAUTION: NUDE CHICKEN LADIES
RAVEN AT 5 O'CLOCK: by Raven and Wayan; 1996/11/30. Shared but stupid psychic dreams.
My girlfriend Raven dreams I keep poking her awake,
while I dream that a giant raven gives me weird advice...
I DIDN'T DIVE IN: by Herbert Read; before 1938, a dream-poem experiment.
I watched her dive into the lake... and fail to come up. Her golden cloak
floated on the water. I hesitated just a moment, and...
BAYSHORE AND CHARTER: by a Redwood City man; July 1951, a lifesaving predictive urge
I burst into tears for no reason and for 15 minutes begged my brother-in-law not to go, then said...
CAUTION: GRUESOME
REGEANA'S DRAGON: by Regeana; 1996/3/9, a dream of generosity
The jewels in the hoard had strange powers, but the advice of the dragon guarding them was even stranger...
LUCID FLIGHT: by Lisa Reich; March 2003, an ecstatic lucid dream of flight.
I flew as if part of the air--an otherworldly freedom so exquisite I wonder if it's attainable at all in earthly existence...
THE BABY: by Gloria Reiser; 1991/3/20; a nightmare of a migratory pregnancy
I'm pregnant. I feel abortion's wrong, but can I safely bear a child at 45? But then...
It's my son's ex-girlfriend who's pregnant and my son's the father! But then...
It's my daughter who's pregnant. At least her boyfriend's supportive. But...
CAUTION: THIS FETUS GETS AROUND
TODDLER SHOT BY SPOUSE: by Gloria Reiser; 1948-49; recurring childhood nightmares
As a toddler I repeatedly dreamed I was a married adult with a daughter
of my own, but the dreams always ended with my husband shooting me...
CAUTION: RECURRENT MURDER
KITTENS OR MOM?: by Jesse Reklaw; 1976-77, recurring nightmares of a choice
I was in Hell. My mom was in a cage suspended over lava. The devil
gave me a cruel choice: "Fry up these kittens or let your mom drop!"
CAUTION: CRUELTY
PALM DREAM: by Skip Renker, 1984 or earlier, a slow nightmare? or a subtle challenge?
After lifeline and heartline, the palm-reader points to a rope ladder heading for Orion. I climb. But
it goes brittle, splinters. I flail. She reads, long-distance, one more line: "Wings", she calls. "Wings."
A DREAM OF HEREDITY: by John Calvin Rezmerski, 1986 or earlier, a shape-poem of a comic nightmare
I'm in a tower of men, each son on his father's back, down to a patient overburdened ape.
His savanna's full of angry women who can only see him to yell at. Standoff. We can't escape.
I wake saying "Ease off, let the ape breathe. Let me down...
THE CREEK: by Louisa E. Rhine; c. 1925? a lifesaving predictive dream
I was camping by a creek. I went to get soap and returned to find my baby son face-down in the water...
SATISFACTION: by Keith Richards, 1965/5/7, a famous dream song (and a well-prepared dreamer)
I always kept a guitar and tape recorder by my bed. I wake up and see the tape's run to the very end.
I ran it back to the start and there, in a sort of ghostly version, was...
NIGHTMARE QUARTET: by Hans Rickheit; before May 1991, four Dada nightmares
Ow! My body parts grow & shrink... A mad orchestra leader pulverizes me for nonconformity...
The Brady Bunch crams siblings into a waterpipe one by one. I'm next! My bones crunch...
I'm blindfolded, perched on a miles-high needle piercing my big toe. Blood drips down...
CAUTION: GLEEFULLY GROSS
THE BATTLE FOR THE RAI DRAGON: by Rikutsu; 2015/12/6, a dream declaring change is ready at last
In a corrupt world, a talisman called the Rai Dragon offers hope of real change--
IF it can be found, AND used by someone decent-hearted...
GREEN DAY DREAM: by Cristy C. Road; early 1995. A recurring dream.
Green Day singer Billie Joe hocked a lugie on me in concert. I felt blessed...
CAUTION: EWWW
A STIRRING FAILURE: by Robert's wife, pre-1961, a precise predictive nightmare
I dreamed a small plane crashed and burned, but also how the pilot
might be saved. I asked my husband to direct the firetruck...
ATLANTIS: 2. REPRIEVE; dreamed c. 1993 by Wally Roberts and Mark Doty; an elegiac dream-poem
I dream the AIDS epidemic was all a dream. But my lover dreams of the tunnel of light ahead...
CAUTION: AIDS DEATHS
TITAN: by Morgan Robertson, 1898; a fiction that came uncannily true
14 years before the Titanic sailed, Robertson wrote of a great liner, the Titan,
with 3000 people aboard, that strikes an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic...
THE DREAM: by Theodore Roethke; before 1958; a dream-poem? Or not?
A mysterious night-encounter with a shapeshifting spiritwoman as elusive as Roethke's poetry...
DISNEY'S MAKE-OUT DATE: by Andrea Rogers, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a creepy dream
I'm in a car with Walt Disney. A blonde comes in out of the rain.
He promises to make her a star, and puts his hands...
CAUTION: NOT GRAPHIC, JUST UGH
RONALD'S FORBIDDEN FIELD: by Ronald, patient of Jan Ehrenwald, before 1954, a telepathic dream?
DREAM: a distinctive house with a tempting green field by it. But the field's forbidden...
DAY: Ronald's analyst had rented that house--but the adjacent field was forbidden...
CAUTION: E.S.P. THEORIES
SECOND READING: by Rose Rosberg, c.1982, a dream shared unwisely
I dreamed my lover was metal inside. I was sure it meant he had no passion.
I told him. Why did he bitterly ask me to stare into my dream like a mirror?
CAUTION: TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP
ROSEMARY AND FRANCES: by Rosemary; 1936/6/5, a predictive mood & flash saves one of two sisters
Gloom clung to me & I skipped the dance. I begged Frances to ride in a safe car, but coming home...
MOON-STRIPED TIGER PROWLING: by Sylvia Rosen, 1975/6/29; dream poem
The foul old fossil woman had carved and burnt her own flesh in the name of art;
we washed her till she was reborn young. It was my turn next to enter the water...
CROCODILE KING: by Christina Rossetti; 1855/3/9, a weird dream-poem she may have faked.
On the Euphrates, a monstrous crocodile eats all his kin. But when a winged ship appears, he feigns remorse...
BREAK / FAST: by Roswila; c. 1987, a poem of a predictive dream
My friend stuffs a broken feeder with birdseed. I worry it'll attract too many wild birds. He laughs "Exactly!"...
DANCING BACKWARD: by Roswila; 2007/5/21, a punning dream-poem
I just watch as all the dance students practice the jive step. I think I already know that one...
THE DREAM TREE: by Roswila; May 1997, a dream-poem on roots
I have no roots but those I steal--until my father leads me to a sacred tree, saying "Look to your mother"...
A DREAMKU PRIMER: by Roswila; 2007; how-to guide to dream haiku
Distilling a dream to one key image can clarify it. But don't be ruled totally by traditional haiku form...
DREAMKU, JUNE 2006: by Roswila; various dates up to June 2006; thirty dream-haiku
Daily dream-poems in haiku style, nonstop for a month. A flood of animals, revenant ghosts, sex changes...
DREAMKU, SEPTEMBER 2006: by Roswila; thirty dream-haiku with various dates from 1960-2006
One dream-poem in haiku style each day for a month!
Ghosts, snow, penguins, yoga babies, elves who leave their tree...
DREAMKU, JANUARY 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to January 2007; 31 dream-poems--mostly haiku
A month of dreams full of science fiction: galactic navigation, spacedragons, oppressed fairies, alien love...
DREAMKU, MARCH 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to March 2007; 31 dream-poems--mostly haiku
Dream poems laid out like a calendar. Themes? Horses, camels, abused girls, vampires--all want their freedom...
DREAMKU, APRIL 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to April 2007; 30 dream-poems--mostly haiku
Dream haiku laid out like a calendar. Roswila's favorite is the pirate, but mine is the were-salamander...
EXPLORATION OF TAROT IMAGES IN A DREAM: by Roswila, 1998; an analytical numerate dream
Tarot cards fuse and meanings layer, to warn me I've similarly (con)fused>
real and trance-induced memories during therapy...
CAUTION: ABUSE ISSUES
FATHER CARES: by Roswila, 2007/9/7?; a dream haiku
A watershed dream for me, since my relationship with my father was, shall I say, conflicted...
CAUTION: ABUSE ISSUES
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH: by Roswila, August 2002; a dream-poem illustrating dream reentry
My horse and I dove into a lagoon and sought buried treasure on the sea-floor. What are we really after?
A GOTHIC TALE: by Roswila; 2000/4/7, a dream-poem
Nightwalkers lured our empath away. We come to their castle to rescue her.
But she's pregnant with magic. Will she come or stay?
LITTLE DEVILS: by Roswila, 2007/10/30; a dreamku
A dream haiku of little devils dancing the conga. What's it mean? Well, check the date...
A MATE FOR THE BLACK STALLION: by Roswila; 2009/3/15, a dream-poem
A mare's brought in to save a rare bloodline. She's young but as extraordinary as her mate: part filly, part feline...
MOVING: by Roswila, 2007/10/13 and 2007/10/23; a recurring dreamku
My dreams support a radical break from my past--to let go of possessions and friends in a cross-country move...
MUTT HUNCH: by Roswila, 2007/11/13; a dreamku
A dream haiku telling of a dog-pack saved by the intuition of a mutt with a mangled ear...
ON BEING NEEDY/NEEDED: by Roswila; February 2002, a dream-poem
In her kitchen she offers me shortcake. She's short herself, for she gives away all
to everyone--only her bodiless head is left...
ON DRAGONS: by Roswila; July 1986, three poems of dragon dreams
The first two dragons numb my pain. I demand it back, and soon regret my haste.
But the third dragon I seduce, for I'm a dragon now...
ONE-EYED BOY: by Roswila; 2009/4/5, a dreamku on the limits of desire
You'd think his Christmas wish would be "a new eye"; well it was, in a way...
THE OTHER PILLAR: by Roswila; 2007/12/9, a double dreamku
A kinky seduction slips into something more uncomfortable: the Qabbalah? Or possibly leather...
CAUTION: EROTICA OR ESOTERICA?
SASQUATCH FOOTPRINT: by Roswila; May 1996, a dream-poem on the loss of wildness
I meet a female Bigfoot, who, to my surprise, quietly speaks my tongue.
She's mourning the death of her infant son...
SHE DREAMS OF BELLY DANCING:
by Daughn Lee and Roswila; 1999 (2000?), a collaborative dream-poem
Alternating stanzas by very different poets, based on
Roswila's dream of bellydancing in the streets...
SONG FOR THE DANCE: by Roswila; 2000/11/25, a dream-poem
A joyful song about ignoring your critics. The last stanza came verbatim from the dream...
STABBED ALIVE: by Roswila; 2007/10/9, a nightmare-poem
I defeat the knife-wielder, in spite the blade in my belly I can't pull out. I may have to let it be...
SURFACE TENSION: by Roswila; 2007/12/8, an anxiety-dream poem
Skimming over the lake on surface tension as two sharks prowl beneath, I'm not sure who's fishing for whom...
THIS DREAM HAUNTS THE DAY: by Roswila; 1999, a dreampoem on transference
My father's trapped in a crashed car. But I'm distracted by a young man whose palm cups a living flame...
THE DREAM: dreamed by Yadwigha, painted by Henri Rousseau; 1910, collaborative dream art
Rousseau's painting of a woman on a red sofa in a glorious
jungle really was dream-based--just not his dream...
CAUTION: NUDITY, SLACKING
KINSHIP IN WINTER: by Elia Rowan; 2023/6/2, an exoclimatology dream
On a scorching world not built for people like us,
I find someone who seems to be a lot like me...
ROWLAND'S DREAM: by R. J. Rowland, 1790s? a dream of a useful ghost.
DAY: Rowland needed papers for a legal case, but couldn't find where his father had stashed them.
DREAM: his long-dead dad told R.J. a lawyer R.J. he'd never heard of had them, 'but the man may need
some reminding', and gave details of Portuguese gold and a drinking bout. Next day, it worked. But how?
CAUTION: GHOST? E.S.P.?
HARRY AND THE HORCRUX: by J.K. Rowling; mid-December 2006, a dream of creative ferment
People have asked me if I ever dream that I am 'in' Harry's world. The answer was 'no' until a few nights ago...
BEFORE BED: by Mary Ruefle, ca. 1995, a dream-poem on stewardship
In the cathedral, before the nation, I solemnly crown someone with my own detached head...
LAMIA by Wayan, 1988/11/1 with a nightmare by John Ruskin, 1869/11/1
I ask my dreams about sex, and get... sex on a beach with a sea-serpent girl--a lamia. But she gets queasy--
landsick! Too hot for her up here. Help her back in the sea. What a contrast with Ruskin's lamia nightmare...
CAUTION: SCALY SEX
RUSSELL, GEORGE: see "AE"
MARABOU MONSTER: by Rustling Leaves; dreamed 2014/3/15
I've got too many obligations, an elderly relative to care for, and now giant birds are invading my house.
CAUTION: STALKING, KILLER BIRDS
THE MOUNTAIN, THE MAGPIE AND THE ROAD: dreamed 2013/3/26 by Rustling Leaves; epic nightmare
I visit a beautiful artificial mountain with loved ones--but my demons overwhelm me one by one.
CAUTION: SUICIDAL FEELINGS, BODY HATE/FATPHOBIA, IMPLIED RAPE
RUTHIE'S CALL: by Ruthie; pre-1961, a lifesaving intuitive compulsion
It was way too late to call, but an irrational urge made me wake my friend up and pester her until...


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