Poet, Author, Teacher, Natural Dreamworker
A main difference between dreams and poetry is that seeing dream images is involuntary and effortless, while seeing images in words—reading with imagination—requires intention and participation. You can’t speed read poetry. The same is true of memory. I must concentrate to bring images to life. The life that comes to mind this morning is a … Read more
My friend Alexis Krasilovsky who is a noted film-maker and author also does graphic art. She read into DREAM LOGIC and produced two illustrations that I wanted to share. I think one of the best ways to read a poem is to write a poem for it, or as she did, to make an art … Read more
Wordsworth is our great teacher of how to contemplate images in nature, and therefore in our dreams.
“I had a teacher in college who said, ‘You could write from your dreams,’” she told Ploughshares, the literary magazine, in 2008, “and that was like being given a bag full of gold.” I was sad to learn of the death of Jean Valentine a gifted poet who wrote in the perfume of the dream. … Read more
I first heard the question during the visit to Dharamsala in 1990 I narrated in The Jew in the Lotus. What are the methods for dealing with “afflictive states of mind”? In this hour long teaching, which I presented recently to the IMSB (Insight Meditation South Bay) I begin with a succinct presentation of HH … Read more
Encountering Images Series #1 From time to time I will be offering examples of encounters with images from poetry. The point is to show what we might learn from the poets about how to better engage with images in our dreams. In the opening of Canto III inferno, “Dante” and “Virgil” stand before the gates … Read more
