mysterious penguin dreaming

Today's poem, for a day I'd really rather be dreaming away.

In praise of dreams
(Wislawa Szymborska)

In my dreams
I paint like Vermeer van Delft.

I speak fluent Greek
and not just with the living.

I drive a car
that does what I want it to.

I am gifted
and write mighty epics.

I hear voices
as clearly as any venerable saint.

My brilliance as a pianist
would stun you.

I fly the way we ought to,
i.e., on my own.

Falling from the roof,
I tumble gently to the grass.

I've got no problem
breathing under water.

I can't complain:
I've been able to locate Atlantis.

It's gratifying that I can always
wake up before dying.

As soon as war breaks out,
I roll over on my other side.

I'm a child of my age,
but I don't have to be.

A few years ago
I saw two suns.

And the night before last a penguin,
clear as day.

I've always thought this poem would be great to teach in an undergrad poetry workshop (or a poetry class in general, as it provides a form that might be easily played with/imitated (like Wallace Stevens' famous "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" poem). And I love hearing about other people's dreams.

A friend who's now become a fabulous neuroscientist (and who also writes great poetry) introduced me to Jung's notion that in dreams, the rooms in a house represent different parts of your unconscious. I'd been dreaming about houses, with attics and basements, and dark narrow passageways through and around them.

Years later I went through a phase in which I was having a lot of intense and sometimes troubling dreams. My lover at the time gave me a book on interpreting dreams for my birthday. I loved the inscription: "Just in case you dream of something besides me." But it was very ominous book, and quite sexist, too, with different interpretations given for some unnamed (I suppose male) person and for "a young woman." I had to stop using it to analyze my own dreams for a while because it was quite distrubing. I was so hoping there would be an entry for "penguin," that I could write about, but sadly, there isn't. But here's the entry for "lizard" (to give you just a taste):

To dream of lizards, foretells attacks upon you by enemies.
If you kill a lizard, you will regain your lost reputation or fortune; but if it should escape, you will meet vexations and crosses in love and business.
For a woman to dream that a lizard crawls up her skirt, or scratches her, she will have much misfortune and sorrow. Her husband will be a victim to invalidism and she will be left a widow, and little sustenance will be eked out by her own labors.

Yikes. Guard yourselves against lizard-dreams. Especially you ladies.

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