In the introduction to his book Why Poetry, poet Matthew Zapruder focuses on the perennial question of why people have such difficulty understanding poetry. The difficulties and frustrations are summed up in the question: “Why don't poets just say what they mean?” I've encountered this question many times over the years, but what hit me this time was the parallel to common reactions to dreams. People are as puzzled by dreams as they are by poems.

This is not the first time this parallel has struck me. One night, after hearing Robert Bly speak out the lines of Federico Garcia Lorca's poem, “Casida of the Rose,” I had a dream. In the dream, a piece of paper fell out of Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections. On the paper was written these lines:

                                            The poem wants a poem

                                            The dream wants a dream.

Note that the dream lines are not about the meaning of poems or dreams, nor about interpreting or understanding dreams or poems, but asserting that dreams and poems are related through desire. The emphasis is not on "our" desiring, but on the poem's desire for a poem and a dream's desire for a dream.  Of course, it is not the poem on the page desiring, but the source of the poem, the deep imaginal source, that source, like the dream-maker, is desiring a poem in return.  More than likely the poem-maker and dream-maker share a common geography in the deep imaginal realm.

Note that I am not talking here about poems written entirely from a conscious standpoint. These poems will not convey the mysterious desire that inhabits poems from a deeper place.

Note that Zapruder’s title is Why Poetry. Note the absence of a question mark in the title. He's not going to be asking this question. He is going to be providing his answer.  When I have finished reading his text, I'll return with another blog post and see what relevance his work has to Why Dreams. No question mark. That may become my text.