My Red Book

Today I attended a "Red Book" workshop led by Nina Ross to learn about Jung's concept and to begin to create a "red book" of my own. Jung recorded his dreams, in word and image. He encouraged his patients to "Put it all down, as beautifully as you can."

During the class, I recorded this recurring dream that had first appeared when I was a child.

Not long after falling asleep, safely tucked in with the faint memory of a goodnight kiss, I drift away from this cozy place. My body becomes light, floating above my house, with my neighborhood becoming increasingly distant. The street lights shine blow, like stars in the night sky. Above me, around me, the sky is midnight blue, with a gauzy haze. I am aware of flying, drifting far from home, but I am not afraid. Curious and happy, I float to the coast, watching the phosphorescent foam crash to the shore with each breaking wave. The ocean breeze carries me out to sea where I am buoyed by the salt air and soft marine layer. Wide awake now, more awake than I have ever been, I travel through the night air over a hilly place. Barely able to discern the contours of the soft earth, I hover, lower now, until I descend to the tops of trees, their shiny leaves catching the moonlight and fluttering in the breeze. My white nightgown keeps me warm and cool as I fall through mist, layers of time, and earthy night-blooming scents until I am reunited with my sleeping body, my resting breathing self. I slip back behind closed eyes, lids fluttering. Lips smiling. 

Perhaps some day I will have the skill to paint the dream in Chagall's blue.

Lunacy

On my last visit to Seal Beach, California, I walked down Main Street and onto the pier not long after the full moon appeared. Of course the moon rises in the east, but because the California coast is not a straight north-south line, the west-coast ocean became a mirror for the moon's bright light. I wrote this poem when I returned to my little room at the home of a childhood friend.

Large Moon Over Seal Beach

Couples on the pier
strolling, stopping
searching for stars
in each other's eyes.

Tired fishermen
carrying empty buckets
back to the parking lot
poles resting on slack shoulders.

Moon-struck lovers
embracing
oblivious to passers by
cocooned in the sound of the surf.

Lunatic street preacher
wearing a heavy chain
shouting the gospel
reeling in no one.

Children laughing
licking sweet ice cream
beneath the summer night.