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Writing & Writers

Dreams about writing, writers, literacy, scripts and alphabets.

RELATED TOPICS: book-influenced dreams - books inside dreams - language - art experiments - films - drama and theatre - TV dreams - the Net - news media - an index of names, including both authors and characters, who've entered my dreams... - five writers ubiquitous in my dreams: Emily Dickinson - J.R.R. Tolkien - Ursula Le Guin - Patricia McKillip - William Butler Yeats -
- See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.


AI ZHONG!: by Wayan; 1989/7/21, a short psychic dream
A small, clear, simple precognitive dream... and its un-small, un-clear, un-simple cause...
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...
ANAGRAMMAGIC: by Robert Graves, 1938 or 39, a possibly telepathic dream
DAY: Friends described JW Dunne's experiments with time. I decide to look for dream elements from the future.
DREAM: I meet Oscar Wilde & other writers I dislike. A nonsense word like TELPOE or PELTOE appears...
DAY: A letter arrives full of anagrams (based on my poetry) about Oscar Wilde & other writers I dislike...
ANNABEL ROSE: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/14, a ghostbusting dream on... love? sex? what?
Edgar Allen Poe confronts his dead girlfriend, who wants to drag him into the grave with her...
CAUTION: HUNGRY GHOST, SEX TALK
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
APOCALYPSE IN ST. JAMES'S PARK: by Robin Hardy; pre-1983, a quiet Cold War nightmare
I find myself at a party in London observing two minutes of silence for the dead of World Wars One and Two. But then, in the park,
blowing across the grass like leaves, were people. The windows imploded. Surely, I thought, there should be a flash before the wind?
ARTIE SHAW: by John Wren-Lewis, 1971/8/17?, a comic predictive dream
DREAM: I write a book involving spies and Lord Snow, but give him a cover name: Artie Shaw.
TWO WEEKS LATER: My wife & I go on the Tonight Show; unexpectedly, Artie Shaw shows up!
I tell him the dream. He turns pale, saying "No one knows this--I wrote a book under the name..."
CAUTION: WILL BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS
ASTAIRES: by Wayan; 2015/11/17, a dream about... the Web?
A host of Fred Astaires dance mid-air in an endless spiderweb,
then pound on typewriters randomly forever...
BEREN AND LUTHIEN: by Wayan, 2017/10/11, a comment on the chance cause of The Lord of the Rings
A publishing-house error made them reject Tolkien's mythical work, and demand a sequel to The Hobbit...
A BIKE ODYSSEY, or, ARABELLA'S ARTIFACT: by Wayan; 1994/7/24, a day trip echoed in a dream.
DAY: I bike across San Francisco writing down what I actually see.
DREAM: I'm an abused English heiress with a dangerous alien artifact...
CAUTION: HAUNTED BY CHILD ABUSE
BRADBURY'S DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS: by Wayan; 1994/1/12, a book review? Or a life review?
Bradbury's Mars was based on his life in Venice, California. What worlds grow out of my San Francisco?
BRITISH TRIANGLE: by Wayan; 2019/8/18, a dream of another life.
I'm a middle-aged British writer in a triad with a sculptor and a dairy farmer
who seem happy sharing me. But it's a small town, so we must be discreet...
CAUTION: TRIAD THAT WORKS
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...
CALIBAN IN ENGLAND: by Theodore Weiss; 1966 or 67; a dream-play never written
As I wrote a poem on Caliban, I dreamt I was him: taken to Shakespeare's England,
shown as a freak, I must escape to save Miranda and Prospero from assassins...
CECY'S SUBMISSION: by Wayan; 1996/6/4, a bondage-farce dream drawn as comics.
My writer-friend Cecy will do anything to get published. Anything? Oh, believe me, ANYTHING...
CAUTION: BONDAGE, not to mention POSTAGE
CHARACTER ISOLATED BY A DEED: by Wayan; 1992/3/13, a dream's eye view of waking minds.
People SAY they like realistic characters they can identify with, but they don't ACT like it...
CIDER AND WINE: by Wayan; 1974/10/24, surreal undream Aspie reporting
Our writing class meets in this Victorian home. I turn off my filters and describe what I really see around me...
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...
CONTRACT CLOAKS FOR COURIERS: by Wayan; 2019/5/30, a dream on enforcing contracts
After a day of medical mess-ups, I dream whites routinely cheat super-fast Native American pony couriers,
till the riders demand showy down payments called Contract Cloaks. Now cheats'll get publicly exposed...
D, D, D: by Wayan; 1988/2/1, trance-poem during automatic writing (done to rewire my brain)
I always wrote some letters strangely--my 'd' was nearly illegible. So I set out to retrain my deep motor skills...
DICKENS AND CAFTAN: by Anonymous #55, 1970/12/24 & 29, predictive dreams
CAFTAN: My ultra-conservative brother wears a caftan. No way!
I woke amused. But later that day, he gave me a Christmas present...
DICKENS: A voice rants "I love Dickens! It has to be Dickens!"
Next evening on Night Gallery, Agnes Moorehead begs for...
DINAH'S ADVICE: by Wayan; 2007/4/14, a false-waking advisory frustration dream
I struggle to write down a bizarre dream clearly and simply, but pen & paper both mutate.
Then a child prodigy explains "dreams don't always want to be linear"...
DISASTER DREAM: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a dream on the struggle of dreamwork?
Trump wackos bomb the World Trade Center. I flee New York. Morticia Addams puts us up. Inside the
dream, I fall asleep. When I wake I ask "was the attack a dream?" Morticia says it was smaller. I try to
write it all down on my bedsheet, but the ink spreads. I wake again, sure I need to wash the sheet...
DOWN UNDER: by Kenneth John Atchity; c.1976, a comic on-the-road dream poem
I ride my tricycle all round Sydney trying to get bureaucratic approval
to feed bananas to my friend the grizzly bear, gooey though he gets...
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...
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...
DREAM RECALL: by Wayan; 1998/8/1, two dreams on dreaming.
Are dreamworlds grim, on average? Do our dreams just express fears, or try to SOLVE our problems?
DREAMSIGNS: by Joseph Kemeny, 2011?, painting of lucidity prompts
This dreamer is starting to notice certain subtle signs that all
is not normal and this may be a dream. Well, not that subtle...
DREAMSTONES: by Patricia Garfield; 1978/8/4, a dream of summoning a goddess
In the cave, I chanted "Come Kama, Come Love..." and a procession of strange creatures came down the stone steps;
squirrels, peacocks, a blue birdlike being with golden headdress, and then the Goddess of Love. Her form shocked me...
DUMP: by Thom Gunn, between 1993 & '99, a nightmare about legacies
His literary afterlife was just six inches of shelf space. But then friends brought more, trucks more, til I slid down hills of paper...
CAUTION: DEATH'S AFTERMATH
EAR TO THE, UH, WALL: by Wayan; dreamed 1983/10/10
Granny's magic nipple helps me foil the yuppies dumping toxic
waste. But does it count if I did it just to save my own...
CAUTION: CRUDE TALK; STETHESCOPIC NIPPLE
EDITORS: by Gavin Ewart; late 1970s, recurring nightmares of censorship.
My new editor starts rejecting my poems. My new new editor rewrites them for me. I feel lucky not to be arrested...
EXTRACT FROM A POEM IN PROGRESS: by D.M. Thomas, c.1972, a poem of an advisory dream
As it was revealed that the pianist in Truro Cathedral was T.S. Eliot's illegitimate daughter, her
wretched playing suddenly became beautiful. I knew the dream meant "cleave to the illegitimate"...
FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity
I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind
myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin
rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me...
FINAL EXAM, WRITTEN IN BLOOD: by Wayan; 2019/6/16, a dream on systemic bigotry
My classmates stole my pen. My teacher condones it. I am, after all, a hated minority.
They won't even SELL me one. So I write my final in blood--three huge, crude letters...
FIVE BLUNT TEETH: by Wayan; 2011/2/17, a biting nondream shape-poem
I read The Best American Poetry, 2007, but it just isn't, and I find myself writing a Savage Poetic Response...
FOUR TABOOS: by Wayan, 2016/3/15, four dreams on inhibitions I hoped I was over.
Climbing out of Childhood Abyss, I literally get a leg up from a girl seeking the Ledge of Teens.
A shy girl has to hide she's a were-creature. Gay men make out in the witch-registry to rattle its
homophobic guardians. My sister stripteases while scolding me for a mess I didn't make...
CAUTION: DUH, SEX TABOOS! KIDS, FURS, GAYS, SIBLINGS
FRANKENSTEIN'S ORIGIN: by Mary Shelley; 1816/6/16, the (hypnogogic?) dream inspiring a famous book
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing
he had put together; I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out...
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?
GENRE NICHES: by Wayan, 2008/4/17, a dreamlet of literary advice
A friend claims literary "personalities"--humorist, craftsman, kook, lowbrow--are really just marketing
niches. So write as you like! If readers like you, industry will make a niche for you, almost arbitrarily...
CAUTION: FOR WRITERS ONLY. OR IS IT?
GIGANTIC SAND MOUNTAINS: by Jack Kerouac, early Sept. 1953, a dream on fun versus work
Perched on a huge sandpile by the train track, I wrote. Then met a narcissistic
hipster chasing happiness and sex. But this globe's austere and full of hurt...
GINSBERG UNMASKED: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a diagnostic dream
Comics character Doctor Blasphemy, on stilts, bares his secret identity:
poet Allen Ginsberg! But who chopped off his missing fingers?
CAUTION: BLOODY FINGERS
HE SAW: by Jeffery Beam; c.1983, a nightmare with three selves
I, sleeping me, watch dream-me find a third me who saw too much
in the kitchen. Unconscious or dead? I just don't know...
HIPPIE MISSILES: by Wayan, 1990/7/23, twin dreams of risky leaps leading to flight
1: I try to grow feathers and fly, but half-fail, half-succeed--experience two bodies at once...
2: I fly to escape a hippie cult. They fire heat-seeking missiles! But I may be too cool to track...
HOT POT CAT LOT: by Wayan; 1992/8/6, a delayed-action psychic dream.
After a bad writing class, I meet a shy catgirl guarding a Mongolian Hot Pot, and discover who I am...
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...
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...
IN THE SHADOW OF MAN: by Wayan; 1994/3/4, a dream on how to escape the cage
I'm a lab animal who discovers voice software and creates a personal zine, testifying for our rights...
INGENIOUS ADVERTISEMENTS: by Elizabeth Kew; 1930s?, a cynical dream come true.
My friend put an ad on her gown, so I try one on our house. I have big ideas for more, but a pickpocket...
JOAN GRANT GETS SOME ADVICE: by Joan Grant; c.1923, an inspirational interlude.
Writer Joan Grant, who was a psychic and trance channeler, got a sort of reading herself, from H.G. Wells...
JUNK FICTION?: by Wayan; 1990/6/15, a rant on literature's treatment of shamans & psychics
At least fantasy and science fiction address my life-issues; "realism" just declares me nonexistent...
THE KEROUAC TREE: by Wayan; 2 ill., 1983/3/18, a dream of fame and time.
The true story of the very first tree-hugger. Not Kerouac! You'll never guess. In fact, you'll say it's impossible...
KIDNAP LI PO!: by Wayan; 1990/1/16, a poetic dream.
I dream a Chinese fable: how the poet Li Po was abucted by the gods, till they face heavenly justice...
CAUTION: ABDUCTION, DRUNKS, EVIL PUN
LILY OXYGEN: by Wayan; dreamed 1984/1/19, drawn 2000; a strong psychic dream.
I'm Emily Dickinson reborn in 2100 as a breeder of hydroponic lilies, till my dad drafts me as
an Arctic energy-prospector, where I meet a ghost, a fiery Beast, a new me, and the girl of my dreams...
CAUTION: QUEER-POSITIVE, NUDE PROSPECTORS, GNOMIC DICKINSON QUOTES
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?
LUNCH-SNIFFER, or, THE PRIVATE NOSE by Wayan, 2022/11/7; a silly predictive dream
DREAM: a weird-looking guy says he's a Private Nose, who can read my
life history by sniffing my lunch. He gets a lot right--but just as much wrong.
NEXT DAY: My sister takes me to lunch & orders tea-leaf salad. Our waiter is...
MA HAS GONE TO FRISCO: by Jack Kerouac, late June? 1953, a back-in-school dream ending in revelation.
I walk the corridors smiling, realizing for the first time that I don't have to go to high school---because I'm a great writer...
THE MAGIC OF WRITING: by Diana Wynne Jones; 1974, mid-'77, '82, late '83, early '84, & '87; prediction, or causation?
What I write in my books and think I have made up has a creepy way of coming true. I noticed it first...
CAUTION: DISTURBING INVOLUNTARY MANIFESTATIONS
MAGICAL GRADUATION: by Wayan, 2018/4/22, twin dreamlets on letting go and being yourself
I befriend author Andre Norton--an ageless high-school kid writing enthused fan fiction, forever...
I find my Niche--the stone nook that decides if I'm a journeyman mage! Here comes my prophecy...
A MAREOTIC QUARREL: by Wayan, 2018/10/10; a dreamlet about truth & experts
My friend Lily misuses the word 'Mareotic'; I know, because I once saw it in a Yeats poem, thought
the footnote explaining it was fishy, checked it myself, and found the editors hadn't even bothered to...
MICROGRAPH: by Wayan; 1991? Illuminated page on psychic dreaming
A mad experiment one night in Micrography, with a midnight rant for scripture and my girlfriend for God...
CAUTION: BLASPHEMY OF SOME KIND OR OTHER
MINOS, EAQUE AND RHADAMANTHE: by James Joyce, c. 1934/7/8, a short, precise, predictive nightmare
Joyce, in Paris, dreamed he was attacked by three madmen, Minos, Eaque and Rhadamanthe. Three weeks later,
a madman mailed explosive packages around Paris--signed Minos, Eaque and Rhadamanthe, the Judges of Hell...
MMM, GOOD!: by Sarah, as told to Gayle Delaney, late 1976 or early '77, a predictive dream
Should I subscribe to Sundance Community Dream Journal? I dream I find a letter--yellowish paper, cryptic blue
lettering, a red margin. I eat it! Best thing I ever tasted. I wake and order that journal. It arrives--and the cover is...
THE MOST FANTASTIC LUCID DREAM OF MY LIFE: by "Ben"; 2007/8/24, an epic lucid dream
I fly, send dreamails, discuss dreams with dream folk, punch a wall to test dream-pain, reach into mirrors...
MY DREAM NIGHTJOB: by Jack Kerouac, late 1956 or early '57, an outa-the-mouths-of-babes dream.
I commute to my dreamjob on a four-story bus; then my baby brother
(who I wouldn't let eat any chocolate pudding) utters a new poem by William Blake...
MY LIFE CHANGED: by Wayan; 1993/6/15, the plain truth.
Advice from a successful writer of worstsellers to all you aspiring failures: unfame has its price...
ODE TO NOT WRITING ODES: by Wayan; 2019/7/17; a nondream non-ode
In an Oakland literary salon (no, not an oxymoron) I'm supposed to
write an ode. But it's so hot, and I have surreal dreams to sketch...
OJIBWAY DREAM NET: by Regina de Cormier-Shekerjian, c.1984, a dream-poem of a visiting animus
I hung the dream-net over my bed. It worked. A blue-winged man with a leg of silver came to me,
drummed, danced, offered to teach me secrets. Awake, I found a blue feather caught in that net...
OPEN MIC: by Wayan; 1992/8/18; my first public dream-reading
An open microphone in a San Francisco cafe. Others tell stories, sing songs, chant poems. But I
want to tell a shamanic dream! To an audience sure that dreams are dull, incoherent, meaningless...
THE OTHER LAND: by Walter de la Mare, c.1881-4; an episodic or "installment" dream series
Age 7 to 11, I often dreamt I inhabited a consistent geography of mountains & deserts. I was an adult of dark
complexion in non-European clothes; I spoke a tongue (and read a script) that I didn't recognize when awake...
CAUTION: ADULT DRUG EXPERIMENT; PAST LIFE MEMORY?
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...
OUT OF BODY TO THE MOON: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, 1860?-67? Early out-of-body dream
I rise out of my body, find I'm invulnerable, visit the moon, with its volcanic rocks, re-enter
my body, "wake" and write the dream--only to wake again and find all my notes gone!...
OVERWHELMED YOSEMITE DAD: by Wayan; 1998/9/25, a warning dream.
Mom's vanished, and our writer/bohemian dad's caring for us
alone now. But he's barely coping. And he's me...
A PEGASUS-DRAGON SCRIPTS MY LIFE: by Wayan; 2017/12/4, a dream of my... creator?
Turns out my life's a TV show. My scriptwriter is half pegasus, half dragon,
and my own humanity has been her science-fictional imagination all along...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
THE PEGASI TUB: by Wayan; 2013/11/9, a fun, flirty dream I felt I didn't deserve
After a rainy hike I'm cold and muddy. In the camp's hot tub, six girls splash and play.
They welcome me, but I feel shy. They slowly become winged ponies! Were-Pegasi...
CAUTION: HOT-TUB NUDITY
THE PEN: by Elector Frederick of Saxony; 1517/10/30, a predictive political dream.
Frederick dreams a monk writes words on the door of Wittenburg’s church
with a pen so big it pokes the Pope. The next day...
PERFORATED PAPERFEED BACKWARD: by Wayan; 1984/8/27, a predictive dreamlet.
DREAM: a weird music player that you feed "tapes" made of Z-folded, perforated paper... backward.
NEXT DAY: my boss tries to fix a balky printer by feeding it Z-folded, perforated paper... backward.
POEM COMPOSED IN SLEEP: by Lidian Emerson, 1867, a lyrical love poem.
Will you walk in the fields, love? / Let us be gone.
The tall grass will wave to thee / Fairest one...
A PROPHETIC DREAM: by William Archer; 1921/4/24, a quiet predictive dream naming names.
A literary agent proposes a novelization offer from a writer I've barely heard of. Twelve weeks later...
READABLE DREAMS: by Wayan; 1989/10/12, 1992/9/1-9/18; a 3-year meditation on treating dreams as art
How do we make dream narratives readable, when so many
readers are brainwashed to think they're nonsense?
REBELLION: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a dream on dreamwork?
I was trapped in a Handmaid's Tale dystopia; I was a mannequin, naked &
helpless. I couldn't even walk. But I hid one rebellious act: I kept a diary...
CAUTION: CARTOON NUDITY, CARTOON DYSTOPIA
RIDDLE ON HER BREAST: by Wayan; dreamed 2021/3/1; a dream using sex to hide a pun
I'm told a girl in an armored nutrient-bath wheechair has my shoes. I need them back. But
to get them I have to answer the riddle written on her breasts. We both get a bit distracted...
CAUTION: CARTOON BREASTS
RING OF SIX: by Wayan; 2018/11/30; an advisory dream of alternate lives
Six women in six similar feudal empires swap places repeatedly. They can never meet,
but they can leave notes, each helping out the next soul to swap in...
CAUTION: ADVANCED DREAMWORK
ROBERT’S PLAN: by William Blake; late 1788; an advisory dream...
Blake was broke. Couldn’t typeset Songs of Innocence and Experience.
But in a dream, his brother advised him...
ROLODEX: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a dream about successful dreamwork?
The posse lost their enemy; reluctantly they asked a tracking detective--me.
They found him where I knew he'd be--from eating my Rolodex cards...
THE RUNES: by Denise Levertov; c.1963, an identity-bent oracular dream
I'm a small child in Finland writing out the meaning of three ancient runes
about trees, ships and elbow room. They seem to hold serious advice...
SCULPTOR OR WRITER?: by Lucian of Samosata, c.135 CE, a career-advice dream
As a boy, my family urged me to aim low and follow our trade: stonecarving. I dreamt two strong women fought
over me, a grubby sculptor and an elegant writer. I sided with the writer, and she let me ride in her flying chariot...
SHE IS THE SNAKE: by Sharon Stricker, 1980, a warning dream from a censored goddess
Should I try to keep Janine out of jail? But outside, she'd gotten back on drugs. That night I dreamed
a huge beautiful snake bit my writing hand, and said "Don't go to court. Stay home and write"...
CAUTION: JUNKIE, RESCUER
SLEEPERS ALL: by Wayan; 2008/8/22, a dream poem, Dreamverse #12
I dream I'm an insomniac trapped in a flat full of snoring writers and reporters. Wait a minute...
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...
SNOW STALLION: by Wayan; 1994/6/4, a tangled political/spiritual dream.
I'm a peace terrorist trapped in Squaw Valley, herded like a mare by a huge stallion made of snow...
And then the dream shifts. I blurt out the truth behind our idiotic waking world! And wake believing it...
CAUTION: MERMAID AND HORSE NUDITY
SOLNIT'S DOG FIXATION: by Wayan; 2017/4/2, an awkward dream mixing a writer I admire & one I don't
I dream peaceful Rebecca Solnit turns into violent Valerie Solanis. Her excuse is, she was kidnapped and raped--
now she only trusts dogs. I mean, sexually, too... The dream warns that furries like me may relate to animals
better, due to abuse by humans. If so, I've got more therapy to do..
CAUTION: ABUSE ISSUES (text only; no abuse images)
A SPHINX'S SKETCHBOOK: by Wayan; dreamed 1994/7/2 & 7/19; a 23-page dream-comic
I find the sketch-journal of a beautiful winged sphinx who left her mythic isle
to explore a great city of crazy bipeds, called San Francisco...
CAUTION: SPHINX SEX, SPHINX ATTITUDE
STEVENSON'S BROWNIES: by Robert Louis Stevenson; 1850s-1880s, a series of dreams
Stevenson's dreams changed over decades: from childhood nightmares into
creative collaborators dreaming whole stories...
SYLVIA, OR, PUN-DREAMS: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, early 1860s? 4 dreams of French puns
A comet grows hair, a girl named Rosalie becomes a bed of roses, writing in a beautiful
hand appears on a beautiful hand, and Sylvia becomes a talking forest bird...
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...
THAT WIND: by Wayan; 1986/8/29; an undream poem on a daymare
Nightmares can warn. But when awake, what warning can you get from nonstop ill-luck?
THIRD EYE: by Wayan; 2009/3/25, three diverse dreamlets on the same theme: enlightenment
1: Three sisters flash me; one has a third eye in there! Clothed, it's blind. Was she just enlightening herself?
2: In the future, most cars self-drive. I'm the last driver using my own muscles and mind. Can I hold out?
3: A friend charts all of history's wars to prove: democracies don't fight each other. So to get peace...
CAUTION: NAKED EYE
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...
THREE DREAMS & A COINCIDENCE: by Rick Veitch, c.1996, predictive shamanic dreams
Three dreams set on Abenaki holy ground, of weird shamans--one ashen, one pumpkin-headed, the
third goofy-faced--lead me to visit the site. Where I find the river's washed up that third shaman's face...
CAUTION: WILL BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS
TINA FEY TRIES TO FLY: by Wayan; 2017/4/24, a mystical feminist farce of a dream
In a world where speech is in Mayan glyphs, comedian Tina Fey (dressed for prom night)
climbs a Tibetan peak to learn levitation. But the flying monks are scared of women...
CAUTION: COOTIES; ROWDY JESUS; MAY FLUNK THE BECHDEL TEST
THE TOOTH: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal), 2003?, an epic, oracular, baffling dream
Psychics give me an incomprehensible reading. A book from the tree-library gives only Victorian dating advice.
At last a madman gives me a treasure-box holding a tooth that unfolds into slices carved in unreadable symbols...
TRISKELION: by Kristopher Saknussemm, c.1986, a surreal false-waking dream
Only up close do I see that the map of these mysterious continents is made of moths. I wake
in Polynesia. By the bed, in a jar, floats one of my hands. For no reason, I begin to cry...
TWENTY-SIX LETTERS, or, A Complete Summary of Poesy; by Cory & Wayan, early Aug. 1992; a haiku slam
You get 26 dice with letters on every face. Roll them all. Your haiku must use every letter. Go!
TYPEWRITER: by Kevin King, before 1983, an ink-noir nightmare
I dreamed my mouth was full of typewriter keys and a typewriter ribbon issued from the back of my head. Joan
was hanging out the window by the ribbon. I reached for her, but my hands kept hitting the space bar, and down...
THE VACUUM CLEANER QUARTET: by Wayan; 1981, four bizarre poems.
All I know about humans, I learned in psychodrama. I gawked as caterpillars grew wings. Except me...
VANDERMEER'S STAIR: by Jeff Vandermeer, 2013 or before,, a nightmarish creative prompt
I was on a spiral stair. The walls had scrawled messages, not sprayed,
carved or painted but living tissue--and getting fresher as I descended.
Whatever was growing them was still below me, and still writing...
THE VOICE OF GOD (THIS IS IMPORTANT!): by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a mystical "oops" dream
God speaks in surreal images from the sky, and I hurry to write down
what God says. But I find I wrote mere squiggles on the page...
VONNEGUT: by Alan Vaughan, 1970/3/12; a psychic dreamlet
VAUGHAN'S DREAM: I visit Kurt Vonnegut. Kids all over. He's going on a trip soon. Mentions of 'Jerome' and an island...
VONNEGUT REPLIES: "That night, childrens' author Jerome B visited; we discussed my upcoming trip to England..."
WAYMO BALLOONISTS: by Wayan; 2021/7/16, a surreal predictive dream
Huge balloons labeled "Waymo" in bad Chinese are taking over San Francisco.
But the sexy balloonists seem to be more into masturbation than conquest...
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM OR OBJECTIFICATION?
WERECAT SYNDROME: by Wayan, 2017/4/23, dream advice on Asperger's. Or masculinity?
Werecat Syndrome runs in my family. Academics assume I'm a savage predator.
Why? All I want to do is rub up against girls and find one who purrs back...
WEREDOGS AREN'T RACIST: by Wayan; 1974/3/31, a surreal sarcastic dream
I'm a girljock waiting to see a movie when a weredog in line involuntarily shifts
from dog to human, and a Berkeley radical takes offense at the symbolism...
CAUTION: SNIPPY ABOUT POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
WILDERNESS OF VIRGINIA: by Jack Kerouac; around Oct. 1, 1953; a capitalist nightmare
I feel horrified--how publishers will batten on the sufferings of junkey musicians... unbearable...
WINK OF A CAR: by Wayan; 2009/5/20, a surreal dream on workaholism.
DAY: I work way too much--art projects plus helping a friend get her lost data back...
DREAM: A gun nut threatens me, so I claim I bent his gun. Really I just bent spacetime.
He flees atop his toy car, letting it steer--it's smarter than he is. That car winks at me...
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...
THE WORLD NEWS: by Nathaniel Hawthorne; 1843; a dream-job (and career advice?)
I dreamt the world itself hired me, at a generous salary, to report its great affairs exactly as they happen...
THE WRECK: by Denise Levertov 1980 or before; a surreal dream-dilemma
We go swimming in a sea full of wrecked tankers. We explore one derelict, but ebb tide pries it off the bank,
out to sea. Do we swim for shore, or wait, hoping high tide will wash it in again? Guess wrong and we die...
A WRITER'S MUSE: by Wayan, 1996/12/7, a dreamfable on creativity.
A writer's found in his office mating with an ash-covered creature! But could she be his muse?
CAUTION: NUDITY OR NOT? SEX OR NOT? NO ONE QUITE KNOWS...
THE WRITING CLASS: by Wayan; 1984/3/27, a grumpy dream.
Most writers search for their unique style. Not me--I struggle to convey unique EXPERIENCES...
YOU CANNOT STAY FOREVER: by Ursula Le Guin; c.1970, creepy hypnogogic verses
You cannot stay forever / on this side of the river
with darkness coming over / and salt has lost its savor...


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