Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Paradox




We used to live
In a first floor apartment
In a house
That haunts my dreams
With mildew and decay
Today

Last night I dreamed
I knocked on the door
Of that house
And visited the people
Who lived there

I told the dream people
In that bright apartment
Like it was real
How weird
This house won't stop
Twisting my dreams

Won't stop
Won't stop
How weird

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird dreams are fun! I usually spend ages trying to work out what it all means.

Karen said...

I have a house dream, too, Jason, although it's not one from this life. It is so real to me, so familiar, that I'm certain I've lived there sometime...somewhere.

Interesting that you dreamed about a dream.

Margaret said...

I'd love to go back to our old house of my childhood in a dream. It was an old, four-storey house with a huge, mystic cellar.

Maybe you need to go back for a visit Jason, to rid of the mildew and decay that's haunting your dreams today.

the walking man said...

I like this very much and am even more glad that I am no longer paying rent on the old places.

Catherine Vibert said...

I love dream houses. My favorites used to be the ones that made my tiny house have secret doors that opened up to big spacious rooms.

I love that you kept using 'how weird' because isn't that just the phrase said most often after a dream?

Miladysa said...

I think I once read that a house/home/building in a dream was representative of the dreamer ;D

Sarah Hina said...

The present self can be hard to fasten down in a dream. I thought those "dream people" might have included the past you. And with a recurring dream, there's the knowledge that it will persist into the future.

I like the layers and shifting here, and the sense of disorientation. Weird, indeed. :)

Why does this house haunt your dreams? What do you think it's trying to tell you?

Sarah Hina said...

Oh, I meant to say, very cool pic, too!! :) I wonder what that dream was about...

Aniket Thakkar said...

I get dreams about the big old house where grandpa used to live. i loved going there. He had arranged for a play room where all the toys were kept and me & bro used to play. I loved doing graffitti on the walls. :-)

But they never haunt me no.

I now wonder what prompted you to write this post? :-)

Aine said...

I had similar thoughts as Miladysa. I believe I've read that a house symbolizes your "self" in dreams.

So...you knocked on the door of your self and visited with the people who live there! HA! Do you have multiple personalities in there? LOL!

Seriously, I think there is something about that house. For, as you know, it frequents my dreams, too.

One thing I can say about our time there-- I experienced the most amazing month of my life. Complete freedom from responsibility and newly married. :)

Charles Gramlich said...

The house that dreams built

Jennifer said...

Jason, I think Aine gave the answer of why it won't stop, won't stop haunting your dreams. (And it's not weird at all, it's totally romantic! ;) )

Jennifer

Milly said...

Unfinished business in the house perhaps.

Hoodie said...

I dream about houses more than any other thing. They are so vivid.

Hey, so I'm officially "back." Please come to my blog and see what's going on.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

I have a re-occurring dream about four different houses! One was haunted in real life, and it continues in my dreams!

I wonder why you dreamed the apt was mildewed and decayed? Does that simply represent the past, perhaps? Then, when you visited the people who currently live there, the house was bright?

The house twists your dreams...
It seems, as though, something was left unresolved there.

In any case, I love the poem. It is so readily accessible.

Anonymous said...

Aggie, most of my dreams are mundane (at least I think). But now and again, I have some doosies.

Karen, is it a consistent dream? Any idea where the house might be located?

Margaret, the funny thing is that my grandmother's house used to haunt me this way. Now, this one has taken its place.

Walking Man, I couldn't stand having people on the other side of the wall. Thumping around. Making a racket. It was such a huge treat to move into our own house.

Catvibe, your dream house sounds way more fun and pleasant than mine. :)

Miladysa, if that's the case, then I seem to be in trouble. ;)

Sarah, the dream people seemed to be loosely based on people that were living upstairs at the time. In the dream, I think I believed that they still lived there, but now on the first floor. Aine and Miladysa have pointed out that houses in dreams may stand for ourselves, and haunted houses can mean unresolved issues from your past or childhood.

Aniket, very glad that house is warm in your dreams and not haunting! As for the inspiration, it is literally true. The night before this post, I had the dream, and in the shower that morning, I thought about how curious it was to be addressing a recurring dream in another dream.

Aine, those times were wonderful for me too. :) I really don't associate the place with bad memories. If it means something deeper, then it must reflect another theme. Haunted places have always frequented my dreams. It is probably a larger issue.

Charles, or in this case, made to fall down.

J, I'd like that to be the case! Being haunted is far less fun than romance. :)

Milly, something unfinished. Something weighing. Maybe I'm peeping back into dark places.

Hoodie, welcome back!! I definitely need to stop over. :)

Kaye, the true house was pretty old. It had its own bits of decay and mildew. But in the dream, it's so much worse. And it has a troubled feel about it. Not disturbingly haunted like some of my other house dreams have been, but definitely an amorphous presence there.

joaquin carvel said...

i like this a lot. gives me that feeling when we want to blow off a dream as just a dream - but can't, quite - the "how weird"s are perfect.

Anonymous said...

Joaquin Carvel, the strange interweave of it really struck me. You're right about that impact.

Linda S. Socha said...

Jason
What a hauntingly beautiful post. I have had many dream houses. One was a hotel that needed total renovation...I thought I would never get out of that one!One was a basement that needed cleaning, sorting and organizing...a definitely long term project...and I had to stay there until it was done....I was allowed to solicit help! Another was one with a shifting floor and perspective sort of like those fun house situations....Another was all white...everywhere....Ah...I would love to talk with you regarding these at some point if you have an inclination. My spiritual advisor say we will have recurring dreams until the issue , situation, etc is resolved for us

Here's wishing you productive dreaming

Thanks for sharing this on
Linda

Vesper said...

I love this, Jason. It is haunting the same way a dream can be...

I have a house that appears in my dreams, always the same, always with more to explore...