Guess the Dream Poet (2013) - Part 2

Guess which poets listed (or possibly omitted) in the below dream anthology belongs in the blanks.

* * *

I'm talking with _______ about giving advice to people.That it's easy to spend a lot of energy and time answering people's questions and giving guidance, but often they won't actually do the project they're inquiring about. I say that it's good to help people, but not to immerse yourself totally in their work and not to be upset if they don't do the work they say they're interested in.

I walk up the driveway of a childhood home. There's a garden that a guy asked my advice on, but he never followed it. There are plants with blue flowers/pods. I take a few and eat them. They have a drug-like reaction. I'm amazed at how high they make me feel and how powerful. I'm feeling very alive and desirous.

* * *

I'm with my Dad. We're watching a video by _______ My dad is of mixed opinions of _______. He likes some of his/her work, but finds some of _______ disturbing. I don't think he's made a final decision on _______. _______ refers to me in his/her video, something about how he/she likes my work. He/she calls me "Rebecca" instead of Reb.

* * *

_______is on tour for her book. She's standing around, talking to people. She's wearing a skirt. She's pretty and in very good shape. She looks great.

* * * 

I'm in Europe at a dinner. I learn that this meal was planned and that 30 years ago I was part of a study run by a group of nuns. They've been tracking us the whole time to see what became of us.  I have no memory of ever being part of any study. I'm a little skeeved out about it.

I'm dress sloppily for this meal and want to change. I see a friend from high school. She let's me borrow her clothes. I show her a tattoo on my leg. It's smudged, but still there. My friend has this same tattoo. So does _______. 

I'm taking a shower in the middle of a room where people are walking in and out. I'm using _______'s facewash and shampoo.

Now I'm wearing better clothes. I have to two pairs of shoes to choose from: one pair is a purple/burgundy that I fear might be too matchy-match with my pants. The other pair is silver.

A woman who was also part of the study (and remembers it) shows me pictures from that time, when we were children. There also is photograph of a woman listed as a fortune teller.

* * *

Even when vegetables begin ranking and prioritizing they begin with the meat and potatoes of their groups.

There are two groups of poets. Beginning with _______.

Guess the Dream Poet (2013) - Part 1

Guess which poets listed (or possibly omitted) in the below dream anthology belongs in the blanks.

* * *

I'm at a party. A bunch of us are talking smack about _______. I talk some smack about him/her and his/her dad. _______ walks into the party. I sit on a chair in the corner and revise my book. It has the same black cover as The Memory Reader, but it's a draft of my book mixed in with an anthology that I edited.

_______ sits next to me and asks about the book. He/she clearly feels very confident and back in his/her game because he/she says, "Let's go make love." 

I snap back, "Absolutely not" so quickly and forcefully that he/she seems taken aback. I say that I'm sorry, but I need to be very clear on this matter.

* * *

I'm in a storage room talking about prom gowns and how they're so casual these days. Then I'm in a theatre audience watching a play where women sing, including Kristin Stewart and _______, sing from caskets. They sounds great.

Someone passes out gifts to the women in the play who are sitting in the audience. They're receiving beautiful, sparkling jewelry. ______ gets me a gift too. At first it looks like inexpensive costume jewelry bracelets, but after looking at it closer, I realize that it's four unmatched (right-handed) gloves. One is long and seems like it would keep my book-holding arm warm when rest of me is under a blanket reading. I'm not sure if I would use these single gloves and am considering taking them back to the store for a refund, but it doesn't seem like I'd get a lot of money for them.

* * *

_______ wants to charge a $20 reading free to encourage poets only to send their best work. Some guy and I agree that's a jerk thing to do.

* * *

I'm in bed with JFK talking about a book about JFK that I'm reading. There's some confusion about the author and which book I'm reading. The cover looks like Black Antoinette: The Work of Olaf Hajek. Then I'm in bed with some other guy that I don't want JFK to know about.  Then it switches again and I'm in bed with _______.

* * * 

I'm in a neighborhood in Homestead called Baby Uplands. I tell __(poet 1)__ that he/she should tell his/her friend, Baby Shambles (meaning __poet 2__) about this place.

* * *

I'm playing a video matching game with _______. He/she gets the first match. Then I get one too. Now we're supposed to convince some kind of mythological woman to touch us. We walk into a room and there are some scary women with octopus legs. I'm thinking they're not who I'm supposed to get in touch with. I need to find the mythological woman who's more like a mermaid. 

I find her. She's kind to me. I raise my hands, in hopes that she'll touch me, but she walks away abruptly. Then she becomes a man and mansplains to us that to be touched that way would be to take us out of this realm. He says that we should be part of this realm and that this realm has its own magic. Being sent to the other realm makes it so you can't really have contact with this realm. 

I understand all this and I really don't want to go into the other realm, but it's the next thing I'm supposed to do. Reluctantly, the man touches me and I change. He hands me a platter that falls through my hands and onto the floor.

The Dream Poet Anthology 2013

Below are the names of poets who made appearances or were mentioned in my dreams during 2013. Some of these poets I know well, others are acquaintances and some are complete strangers. If you find your name is on this list and you do not know me, it means that I know of you via your work or reputation and my psyche has attached some type of meaning or symbolism on you to represent something. Maybe I follow you on Twitter? Maybe somebody I follow retweeted one of your tweets? Maybe you post really obnoxious Facebook updates that haunt me late at night?

Or maybe it means something else completely. Who can say with any certainty what a dream means? Maybe it means you've been selected for a psychic quest of great importance? Maybe it means I'm watching you through a pair of binoculars at this very moment? Who knows. 

Just don't ask me for details of the dream. Seriously, don't. Every year people disregard this note and ask me. It's usually people who appeared in my dreams as corpses. So for the sake of everyone's mental health, I'm not telling you. 

2013 Contributors:

Deborah Ager, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Aaron Belz, April Bernard, Anselm Berrigan, Lucy Biederman, Julie Bloemeke, Anne Boyer, Brandon Brown, Blake Butler, Laura Carter, Lucille Clifton, Kelly Cockerham, Shanna Compton, Eduardo Corral, Bruce Covey, Catherine Daly, Peter Davis, Teri Cross Davis, Oliver de la Paz, Alex Dimitrov, Michael Dumanis, Donald Dunbar, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Jenny Factor, James Franco, Elisa Gabbert, Neil Gaiman, Roxane Gay, Kim Gek Lin Short, Bernadette Geyer, Tod Goldberg, Nada Gordon, Lea Graham, Jorie Graham, Arielle Greenberg, Charles Jensen, Joe Harrington, Rebecca Hazelton, Patrick Herron, Ron Hogan, Major Jackson, Bhanu Kapil, Kirsten Kaschock, Collin Kelley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kevin Killian, Amy King, Alan King, Rauan Klassnik, Becca Klaver, Jennifer L. Knox, David Lehman, Jon Leon, Patricia Lockwood, Natalie Lyalin, Tony Mancus, Cate Marvin, Joseph Massey, David McDonald, Erika Meitner, Chris Murray, Gina Myers, Micki Myers, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Daniel A. Nicholls, Mel Nichols, Seth Oelbaum, Ed Ochester, Maria Padhila, Danielle Pafunda, Richard Peabody, Jessica Piazza, Scott Pierce, Nate Pritts, PF Potvin, Michael Quattrone, Adam Robinson, Anthony Robinson, Steve Roggenbuck, Sean Rohwedder, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Kathleen Rooney, Ken Rumble, Allyson Salazar, Elizabeth Savage, Steven Schroeder, Zach Schomburg, Evie Shockley, Laurel Snyder, Ricco Siasoco, Martha Silano, Sandra Simonds, Laura Sheahen, Nicole Steinberg, Janaka Stucky, Gary Sullivan, Maureen Thorson, Rich Villar, Chris Vitiello, Allyssa Wolf, C. Dale Young, Dean Young, Mike Young

Frequently Asked Questions


Q: I'm a writer, but not a poet. Why am I included on a poet list?
A: Simmer down and accept the compliment.

Q: Can I submit my work for next year's anthology?
A: This anthology only accepts psychic submissions. Submit to my unconscious and perhaps you will be allowed in.

Q: Does my appearing on this list mean that you are obsessed with or stalking me? 
A: Possibly. 

Q: Will you tell me the details of the dream I appeared in? 
A: No, absolutely not. Assume the dream was totally demented and would disturb you a great deal. I will not tell you.

Q: I'm a poet and I'm psychically awesome, why aren't I included in this anthology?
A: There are three possible reasons you are not included:

1. You didn't appear in my dreams in 2013. Resolve in 2014 to be more ambitious psychically.
2. You did appear in my dreams, but I don't remember. I forget many dreams. Your omission is a simple case of editorial oversight. You were screwed, unintentionally.
3. You did appear in my dreams, but I am loathe to publicly admit such a thing. This applies to a small percentage of poets appearing in my dreams. Your omission is a simple case of editorial bias. You were screwed, intentionally.


Mad Poet Libs:

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 1 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 2 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 3 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 4 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 5 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 6 (2013)


Past anthologies:

The Dream Poet Anthology 2012

The Dream Poet Anthology 2011

The Dream Poet Anthology 2010

The Dream Poet Anthology 2009

You'll chop your toe off!

41

PEEP/SHOW

(Collage by Lynn Behrendt)

Excerpts from my novel, Bombyonder, appear in Issue #6 of PEEP/SHOW (along with work by Amaranth Borsuk & Kate Durbin, Chris Piuma, Michael Ruby, Keiko Sono, Tom Beckett, j/j hastain, Nance Van Winckel, Anna Elena Ayre, Michael Peters, Cheyenne Nimes, Anselm Berrigan, Geof Huth and Dorothy Albertini).

Here's a sample:

On this meeting with this particular ancestor named Carry, I was surprised by her mask and its thickness. Hardly a way in or out. Not at all clownish but with brown scales, leather and bolts.



How strange to hear her speak through the clamp for a mouth and to be seen through her single tiny eyehole. How muffled her words sounded through the barriers. How uncomfortable to know she cried behind that foulness not because it was foul, but for the sake of her brother, an accused molester of the vulnerable.



Trouble with the law. There’s always so much trouble with laws for this family.



Who did this to you?



“The women and children, like they always do, their cruel, perverted imaginations that they just can’t keep to themselves. They have to share, and share for years, they whisper and then they group together and then they testify and allow it all to go down as record. They perverted it all, smote his perfect legacy.”



No, I mean who put that mask on you? Why are you still wearing it? What is behind it?



“My brother placed it on me, for my salvation. He’s my protector. There are so many terrible women and children spouting their wretched tales, repeating and publicizing. They let nothing go! What lies behind this mask hasn’t yet been penetrated. So little left that hasn’t been penetrated. My face is one of the last pure bastions.”



You can hardly see or speak through that mask and it smells like your skin is decaying under there.



“Yes, the decay keeps me safe. Frightens away the children and many of the women too. No one is going to scavenge me for their depraved narratives. Forever I remain unmolested.”



But her corpsed-face remained unmolested no longer.



Because now I was there, smelling it, imagining its appearance, inventing my memories.

Go here to read the rest

no school tomorrow