Elaine Equi Recommends...

“I never acquired the habit of keeping a journal, except to record my dreams. It always amazes me when I reread one from years ago, how fresh it still seems—more vivid

even than my memories of actual events. One of the best tips I ever got was that you should title your dreams. Doing so makes the whole recording process into more of a literary activity. Some examples of my recent ones are ‘In a Fog,’ ‘Dream Kitchen,’ ‘The Creeper,’ and ‘A Nice Voice.’ Often with just a bit of minor editing, I have something I can type up and keep. It’s like the elves and the shoemaker, or the story of how the famous Surrealist poet Robert Desnos is said to have hung a sign on his door when sleeping that read: ‘Do Not Disturb—Poet at Work.’ Of course, I have poems I struggle over too, but I am not above taking a handout from the great unconscious.”
—Elaine Equi, author of Sentences and Rain (Coffee House Press, 2015)