In the most general sense, dream language is like art. It is a symbolic language, whether simple or subtle, mundane or mysterious. Some dreams are like abstract paintings ~ a wash of colors perhaps, or a tangle of wordless thoughts and impressions. Some are surreal, teeming with bizarre imagery and logical paradox. Some blur the boundary between reality and dream ~ so real do they seem. The dream poems in Visions are like verbal-paintings ~ full of the sublime, the fantastic, the grotesque.
But Visions is influenced by art in a specific sense as well. The centerpiece of the book, “The Dreamer,” describes a painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman called “The Siesta.” It is both the most philosophical and the most pictorial poem in the book. In Bridgman’s luxurious painting, an odalisque reclines in sensuous indolence. Sweetly dreaming, she is poised between this world and the world of imagination. “She is both dreamer and dream” (p. 35).
Throughout Visions there are allusions to other artists and works of art. Besides “The Siesta,” two paintings are featured in poems ~ Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream” and Paul Gauguin’s “The Day of God.” Like “The Siesta,” both are set in exotic locations and both depict scenes of repose. In “The Dream,” a woman reclines on her sofa deep in the lush African jungle. In “The Day of God,” Tahitians lounge in a tropical paradise.
Like dreams, these paintings present moments outside of time, eternal moments that neither begin nor end, that ever alternate between the real and surreal.
But Visions is influenced by art in a specific sense as well. The centerpiece of the book, “The Dreamer,” describes a painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman called “The Siesta.” It is both the most philosophical and the most pictorial poem in the book. In Bridgman’s luxurious painting, an odalisque reclines in sensuous indolence. Sweetly dreaming, she is poised between this world and the world of imagination. “She is both dreamer and dream” (p. 35).
Throughout Visions there are allusions to other artists and works of art. Besides “The Siesta,” two paintings are featured in poems ~ Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream” and Paul Gauguin’s “The Day of God.” Like “The Siesta,” both are set in exotic locations and both depict scenes of repose. In “The Dream,” a woman reclines on her sofa deep in the lush African jungle. In “The Day of God,” Tahitians lounge in a tropical paradise.
Like dreams, these paintings present moments outside of time, eternal moments that neither begin nor end, that ever alternate between the real and surreal.
