World Dream Bank topic: Dreamverses

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The Dreamverse Project

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Dreamverses is an experiment. Weekly for a year, I turned my vividest dream into a short illustrated poem. If none were intense enough, I found one in my older journals, but that was rare.

Why Dreamverses? Well, I'd been reading famous poets, and they uninspired me. Their dreams are few and dull, and if they do write up a dream, they're stunned the goose of sleep laid one golden egg. So they title their lone dreampoem My Dream or A Dream--never Cows in Space or Doorknob Orgasm or whatever it's about, as they would for any other topic.

So in Dreamverses I treated dreams as real experiences worth telling. That means I've stuck to the dream-facts. These aren't poems inspired by dreams; they're dreams told as poems. As narratives, not lyrics, their style may be prosaic. But my dreams are baroque, even bizarre; I didn't want to gild the octopus.

Would I recommend dreamversing to other writers? Yes. But gear it to your available time, energy and recall. I started out at one a day, but that was brutal--I needed way more time to polish. I paused for months, midway; in the end it took five days per poem.

Still, I was amazed how enthusiastically my dreams co-operated with the project: a flash-flood of short vivid wild dreams just begging to be written up as poems. It ebbed politely when I began rewrites, and ended with a bang...

My conclusion? Dreams aren't passive ore, but collaborative partners.

RELATED TOPICS: Roswila's dreamku - dream poetry in general - dreamwork in general - creativity - art experiments - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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	FIRST IMPRESSIONS: by Wayan; 2004/5/20, a dreampoem; Dreamverse #0.. I meet a monster--half earthworm, half giraffe. Then I realize she's kind of cute...
	LEMON PEOPLE: by Wayan; 2008/8/11, a dream poem; Dreamverse #1. A dream-fable of lemons who are really orange-people infected by a spore turns out to be about me...
	FOX-MOTHER: by Wayan; 2008/8/12, a dream poem; Dreamverse #2. The goddess of the Cult of Clutter catches a little thief, and tastes her to see if she's worthy...
	SHY NO MORE: by Wayan; 2008/8/13. A dream poem, Dreamverse #3 I play the lovers in a teen romance: shy abused boy, insecure girl. But I get tired of the script, and... CAUTION: LANGUAGE
	THE DOCTOR KILLS A TERN: by Wayan; 1988/9/24. A dream poem, Dreamverse #4 Dr Who kills his best friend, a huge white tern, on a whim. Furious, I demand a rewrite... CAUTION: WANTON MURDER
	12 SWALLOWS, 700 DAUGHTERS: by Wayan; 1972/10/14, a dream poem on compassion; Dreamverse #5 Alchemy demands I kill ten swallows. I refuse! Instead, twelve birds and I fuse and fly over a magic wood...
	ANIMAL HEAVEN: by Wayan; 2008/8/16, an astral dream-poem; Dreamverse #6. At a party in Animal Heaven, I fall for a rabbit-girl doomed to be human dinner. But how can I rescue her? I'm Fate's part-time intern! CAUTION: BREASTS, BEASTS, INCOMPETENT ANGEL OF DEATH
	CROC BOY: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #7. I visit a witch-smeller, who judges apprentice shamans. But when a boy dreams he's a crocodile, she freaks out...
	DAD'S DATES: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream poem, Dreamverse #8. After my mom's death, my dad starts dating again, while I hide out and wince. Can't I do anything positive?
	JELLY REBELLION: by Wayan; 2008/8/19, a poem of a diagnostic dream, Dreamverse #9 I interview my own metabolism. Trouble in Cellville! I've got strikers and usurpers. But at least no invaders...
	NOT OUR HAWAI'I: by Wayan; 2008/8/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #10 My sister & I swim round a weirdly shrunken Pacific. Near Fiji, we blunder too close to the drain...
	SURF THE SAN ANDREAS: by Wayan; 2008/8/21, 3 short dreampoems, Dreamverse #11 Through twin gates of dream--not ivory and horn any more, but fear and trust... Three castles on the sea: a Mock Kremlin, a Ship of Toiletpaper, and a Ship of Brick and Beer... A mad old surfer of the San Andreas Fault, impossibly riding earth-change...
	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...
	KISS THE CATS: by Wayan; 2008/8/23, a dream poem, Dreamverse #13 I have to kiss a mess of cats. Fishy, but I'm not chicken. My real beef is with the humans watching...
	LARRY'S MULTIVERSE: by Wayan; 2008/2/16, a dream poem, Dreamverse #14 My shamanic teacher lures me into a labyrinth ruled by wizards whose magic-monopoly's about to fall...
	SAW HER IN HALF?: by Wayan; 2008/8/28, a warning dream-poem, Dreamverse #15 A sorceror's apprentice describes a medical procedure her teacher plans. Yow! I sure wouldn't trust anyone to try that on ME... CAUTION: TALK OF BLOOD AND SEX
	CUTENESS PAGEANT: by Wayan; 2008/8/29, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #16. I'm trapped in a cute cartoon universe! Worse, to judge this beauty contest, I have to see past our style to our souls...
	FETAL PAUSE: by Wayan; 2008/8/31, a nightmare-poem, Dreamverse #17 As I write a sad sex dream, a madman curls up fetally in the road outside my window. I'm slow to call 9-1-1, and...
	ANCIENT MARE-KIN GRAVEYARD: by Wayan; 2008/9/1, a dreamsong (MP3+lyrics), Dreamverse #18 I'm a ghost watching future archeologists dig up a site of my people--and get it so wrong...
	TIME-BUBBLE: by Wayan; 2008/9/1, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #19 In a city crawling across a marshy world, I find a detonating bomb frozen in a time-ball. Why not detonate it somewhere harmless, why carry this around?
	SORB TRUCE: by Wayan; 2008/9/1, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #20 In a desert crawling with aliens who can absorb your mind, I propose a truce, and gain...
	INCEST IMPROV: by Wayan; 2005/6/13, a flying-dream poem, Dreamverse #21 Improv-dancing with my sister, I get turned on. But then a repressed Asian girl joins our dance, and... CAUTION: INCEST MENTIONED. OOPS, TOO LATE.
	BLUEBEARD DRAG: by Wayan; 2008/9/5, a creepy dream-poem, Dreamverse #22 On the waterfront, I meet a seductive girl. Well, guy. Well, serial killer. Um, I think I'll leave now... CAUTION: HOMOPHOBIA OR SURVIVAL INSTINCT?
	SMALL MIRACLES: by Wayan; 2008/9/7, two dream-poems (Tiny Scientists and Barberry); Dreamverse #23 Things start materializing in my house: first three tiny naked scientists, then a huge impossible fruit... CAUTION: NUDE SCIENTISTS
	INVOKE THE ANIMAL POWERS (or was it PROVOKE?): by Wayan; 2008/9/9, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #24 A children's recital of "Where the Wild Things Are" turns into a riot-orgy. And it feels... political? CAUTION: WILD THING ORGY
	AIRACUDA: by Wayan; 2008/9/9, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #25 The jeweled fish over San Francisco grew and grew until it landed and the crew told me the secret code...
	BIRDS ON FIRE: by Wayan; 2008/9/15, a political dream-poem, Dreamverse #26 George Bush leads a hill-tribe raid against the hill-tribe led by Osama bin Laden... and I'm stuck between... CAUTION: ANTI-HEROES, POLITICAL PREDICTION
	THE MOOMIN COMMISSIONERS OF TIME: by Wayan; 2008/9/17, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #27 A new Eve asks the Time Commission to send her and her baby back to Ethiopia 45,000 years ago. But they're shy Moomintrolls, not humans...
	ETNA-SHASTA, or, GROOM YOUR OWN FEATHERS: by Wayan; 2008/9/18, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #28 On a volcano's rim, watching the lava fountains, I interview a huge blue alien bird who never planned to be a monk...
	KING KONG CRAB: by Wayan; 2008/9/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #29 One wizardry-classmate summons strange beings; another's learned how not to. Because some things need to be dealt with alone, where they can't harm......
	INDUSTRY'S SHORE: by Wayan; 2008/9/24, a dream poem; Dreamverse #30 In the hills above a polluted shore, I find hidden valleys with huge rare trees, and realize it's my choice...
	HAMM: by Wayan; 2008/9/26, a dream poem; Dreamverse #31 A lecturer tries to help the homeless founder of Hamm's Beer, robbed by bankers. But the talk may harm more than help...
	OH, WAIT: by Wayan; 2008/10/3, an illustrated dream poem; Dreamverse #32 I'm a spy tracking down coinlike bombs. Fighting a double agent, I fall in love! So I suggest her gang rob golden-parachute bankers... CAUTION: POOLSIDE SEX
	MY POETIC LICENSE: by Wayan; 2008/10/5, a self-referencing dream poem; Dreamverse #33 Renewing one's life has its costs. What if you can't pay the price? A dreamlet of warning and shame...
	PRAISE THE DANCING GOONS: by Wayan; 2008/10/16, a dream-poem: Dreamverse 34 Three big tap-dancing kidnappers is too many to fight. So I try admiring their kidnapping technique...
	WHOSE DREAM WAS IT?: by Wayan; 2008/10/18, a nested-dream poem, Dreamverse #35. I'm a Chinese kid fleeing the Japanese Occupation in 1938. As we near San Francisco, I wake to find it's all my dad's dream. Wait--he's alive again? But he was never a refugee. Is it a pastlife memory? If so, whose--his or mine?
	THE CHAPARRAL OF TIME: by Wayan; 2008/10/21, a timetravel dream-poem: Dreamverse #36 I snorkel over time-reefs to an era of talking animals--but why crash on the head of rocker Suzi Quatro?
	TEETH IN HIS THIGH: by Wayan; 2008/10/30, an embarrassing dream-poem: Dreamverse #37 The Conference on Love has two sexy speakers. One says "my teacher's stalking me" but she clings to him. Love? Hate? Both? CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM--but what are these two exhibiting?
	DRUGGED, SHRUNK AND DAUBED: by Wayan; 2008/11/1, a dream-poem (Dreamverse #38) I'm worried an alien charity is brainwashing an ex-prostitute. When I wake, she's still there--at 2/5 scale!...
	DISCARDS: by Wayan; 2008/3/24, a rap heard in a dream--Dreamverse #39 A Marin girl finds a dirty secret in the school library--they discard the unpopular. She kinda identifies with the discarded books. And discarded people...
	MUSICIAN AND FOXTAIL, by Wayan, 2009/2/14, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #40 In Palo Alto I meet strange musicians in the rain, and realize kitsune aren't born but made...
	VIDEO WOLVES: by Wayan; 2009/2/23, a dreamsong (MP3+lyrics), Dreamverse #41 Robot wolves with videocamera eyes prowl our block, freezing me in their headlight glare. Why do I think one's my ex-girlfriend?
	RETARDED STARS, by Wayan, 2009/2/28; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #42 A horde of demented dwarves invades Market Street, jumping up & down, shaking the skyscrapers...
	HER LOVELY AWKWARD SYNTH, by Wayan, 2009/3/9; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #43 A musical prodigy has a gorgeous, unplayable keyboard. But serious creativity takes a dull, regular, ergonomic instrument...
	THE TIGER WHEEL, by Wayan, 2009/4/25; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #44 A tiger-couple on an ice floe must choose: swim for land, or ride the current full circle back home, risking starvation?
	ORE PIRATES, by Wayan, 2009/5/29; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #45 I'm in a movie version of prehistoric Baja California, mining nuggets that howl, when pterodactyl-worshiping pirates glide in trying to snatch our ore...
	JOE COOL IN FINANCIAL HELL: by Wayan; 2009/6/15; Dreamverse #46 When the school district goes bankrupt, students flee creditors into a hell-cave. But Joe Cool can skateboard even on lava in the Pit...
	GALLEY SLAVE: by Wayan; 2008/11/27, a punning career-advice dream; Dreamverse #47 Shipwrecked and claimed as salvage on Crete, Ed the writer became a dishwashing slave! In contrast, Marie the musician...
	FERRYGOAT: by Wayan; 2009/8/15, a dream warning what I was becoming; Dreamverse #48 That levitating bear's not tightrope-walking--she rides a goat strung like soap-on-a-rope. A goat that's me! I'm eating... CAUTION: UGH!
	THINGS WASH OFF: by Wayan; 2009/4/22, a dream fingering the cause of a breakup; Dreamverse #49 Those Hollywood lovers in the tub seem perfect together, until... oh, read the title! CAUTION: RACE- AND GENDER-BENDING
	A BEAGLE, THREE WOLVES, AND A SETTER: by Wayan; 2009/2/6, a dream-poem; Dreamverse #50 Fresh off the Beagle, Darwin meets three wolf-girls, but has distinctly Biblical inhibitions... CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM, PUNS
	BOLLYWOOD LOVE: by Wayan; 2009/4/12, a movie dream (duh!); Dreamverse #51 I dream the universe runs on Bollywood rules. I can stand the constant singing and breakdancing; what gets under my skin is that Bollywood Code...
	THE GREAT WAVE: by Wayan; 2009/4/24, a dream-poem about the future; Dreamverse #52 I find myself sketching the slope of progress up to the coming singularity, and notice a hidden stability...
	UNGHOSTS OF CHINA: by Wayan; 2009/9/2, a ghost-dream poem; Dreamverse #53 THAT DAY: art nonstop! Put myself down for obsessing. Empty man! THAT NIGHT: I'm in rural China. Two women tell me their village declared them dead, killed by demons. So are they ghosts, or just written off by idiots? MORNING: wait--have I been calling me dead? Oh...
	SANTA CLUMP: by Wayan; 2009/9/16, an absurd dream-poem; Dreamverse #54 I find myself sitting on toy trains and fake snow as I'm told a fable: how a herd of department-store Santas got tragically lost in a blizzard...
	THE DOG KING: by Wayan; 2009/9/28, a short dream poem with portrait; Dreamverse #55 Around royalty, protocol gets complex. I love the Dog King; despite her title she's female. Does that make her a...
	CURSE HER IN THE OAK: by Wayan; 2009/9/28, dream poem on an odd job; Dreamverse #56 I'm a girl in rural Victorian England working as the county's magical protector. I have my hands full: a gang of thievish orphans has holed up in an invisibility tree! Showdown at the oak...
	SKY AND PRESTER JOHN: by Wayan; 2009/9/30, two short dream poems with sketches; Dreamverse #57 My neurotic sister and I both lust for a girl named Sky; then I flee a gang of popes and lamas and mullahs...
	VERY FUNNY, MR. MOSLEY: by Wayan; 2009/10/8, a comic nightmare poem; Dreamverse #58 Trapped in a blend of Joan of Arcadia and The Tempest Tales, I'm tired of being the pratfall sidekick...
	THE UNICORN MASK OF IGNORABILITY: by Wayan; 2009/10/13, a predictive dream; Dreamverse #59 My family home's invaded by ancient Egyptian architects. So I put on my unicorn mask and eavesdrop on their plans...
	AQUARINA PRODIGY: by Wayan; 2009/10/15, a dream poem with sketches; Dreamverse #60 A child prodigy stands out in a chorus line of waterdancers. Her body is a patchwork of young & old...
	PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD: by Wayan; 2009/10/19, an illustrated dream poem; Dreamverse #61 I get stuck with a one-year mandatory gig as President of the World, just as Saudi Arabia collapses, and fools rush in...
	HELL CAFE: by Wayan; 2009/10/21, a dream poem w/sketch; Dreamverse #62 A Buddhist scroll shows me Hell Cafe, where diners become entrees. But I read the scroll backwards! You can escape Hell just by walking out, against the traffic flow... CAUTION: CANNIBAL SOULS
	CLAY AND HOP: by Wayan; 2009/10/30, a dream poem with sketches; Dreamverse #63 I touch the secret soul of a cancer survivor, upsetting her. To apologize, I become a goofy hopping god... CAUTION: FONDLING SACRED FIGURINES
	SHIP OF JADE: by Wayan; 2009/11/7, an illustrated dreampoem on dreampoetry! Dreamverse #64 My dreams are made of lovely carvable jade. Too bad my tools and skills suit our plastic age...