A few nights ago, I dreamed that Mark and I were at the Embarcadero in San Francisco to meet Nicholas Manning (someone I only know, to the extent that I know him at all, through blogland). The Embarcadero was more like a souk--a lot like Fez, actually. While we were wandering around, I saw someone that looked French. This was my dream logic, because I can't actually describe what Nicholas looked like in my dream. He only vaguely looked like his blog picture, but when I saw him in the dream, I knew that he looked French and I walked up to him, touched him on the shoulder in a very formal way, and said "you are Nicholas Manning." He had a friend with him who had glasses but other than that was completely inconsequential to the dream.
After this greeting, the four of us walked outside to the deck of the market, but instead of San Francisco bay was a beach that looked more like the Carlsbad State beach. The light, sand, and water were a kind of rich golden color--a dreamy sort of late-afternoon pre-sunset color. Nicholas said, with great drama, "Ah, it is the Nile! Let us bathe!" In my dream, I had a moment of Wait, this isn't the Nile. Oh, maybe it is. Why not? I was reluctant to swim but then eventually did.
After that, we went back into the market/souk, and Nicholas began talking about rabbits and cats. He said something like "there is no animal better matched to the cat than the bunny. They are equals in every way, especially strength and ferocity." In response to this observation, I pulled out a series of wallet-sized, color holographic images of all the animals I've ever known--pets, friends pets, animals I've seen and remembered, etc. I put these pictures out on a card table in a way that suggested I was telling someone's fortune. We all examined the pictures.
I noticed that there was a bird sitting at the end of the table. The bird was Lester and also a tiger-colored tomcat I used to know named Benjamin. I noticed that the bird/cat had some pin feathers, so I reached out to scratch his head, and this is how the dream ended.
I'm not sure why Nicholas showed up in a dream--I rarely dream about poets, especially ones I don't know. I think it might have something to do with a post he wrote a few days ago about being 210 days away from finishing his PhD, about starting the process of becoming a French citizen, and ended with a description of his dream living/work space. Something I've been thinking about a lot recently.
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7 comments:
Hi Lorraine,
I'd like to include your dream, up to "this is how the dream ended" in the Annandale Dream Gazette, if that's okay with you.
Best,
Lynn
Hello Lynn,
Sure, thanks for asking : )
I like how your dream had Nicholas talking like a French walk-on character from an old movie--wise, elegant, quaintly liberating ("the Nile!") I was amused.
verification word (this is sinister): thesses
Au nom du ciel, this is magnificent! So strangely beautiful, it just makes me wish that all of it had occurred. But I do swear Lorraine that when I finally do meet you and Mark, it will not only be at the Embarcadero but my first words will be, in dramatic intonation: "Ah, it is the Nile! Let us bathe!"
yeah, Nick is a great dream walk-in, I can totally imagine him philosophizing the cat /bunny thing! the thing about Nick is this, when you actually meet him, you will feel like you already know him, any pretense or formality, like in the dream, simply won't exist. the last time I saw him he was revelling in that he could smoke inside a restaurant!!!
Stan--there was definitely a cinematic, quaintly liberating feeling about the whole thing.
Nicholas--It certainly was one of the more lush, lucid, and interesting dreams I've had in a while! Mark and I would love to meet you at the Embarcadero in SF, though it's possible that the three of us might be in Paris at the same time before then... maybe this summer if we actually get some funding...
Hi Susana--I don't know where the cat/bunny thing came from, but it's good to know that you can actually imagine Nicholas saying it.
A lucid dream is a dream in which you wake up realizing that you're in a dream and then you take control and direct your "in-dream" reality.
Sorry about this actually. I've been having too many of those. I was searching about the reason on google, and I stumbled across your page.
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