March 19, 2012: Nancy O Graham: Somniloquies - Simpleton

NANCY O GRAHAM: SOMNILOQUIES - SIMPLETON

Uses as its repeated text a line from a fairy tale. I did a number of these, taken from a coloring book that I can, sadly, no longer find.

Nancy Oarneire Graham creates somniloquies, or recorded sleeptalk, by repetitively reading a short text—whether from a children's story, a work of nonfiction, or her own dreams—until she begins to fall half asleep. In the twilight state between waking and sleeping, known as the hypnagogic state, visions, half-formed thoughts, and stray words begin to interrupt those read from the page, opening a window onto this borderland.

Nancy's somniloquy-based poems and prose have appeared in print and online publications, including BlazeVOX, Café Irreal, Chronogram, Eratio, Invisible City, New Verse News, Pindeldyboz, Prima Materia, Listening in Dreams (by Carol Ione), and Water Writes (edited by Larry Carr). She has performed somniloquies as part of the Deep Listening Institute's Dream Festival in Kingston, New York. Her chapbook, somniloquies, is available from Pudding House Publications. She lives in New Paltz, New York with her family, Henry Lowengard, Raymond and Ada Graham Lowengard, and Pat Lavender Will, a rescued tabby.

 Pop-up player!