Raven 51: Dreams

What distinguishes you? Number one, just stretch out your wings. Number two, your wings are always stretched out.

Case

One afternoon, after the Tallspruce group hiked over to Lowridge for berries, Black Bear said to Raven, "This is my last get-together before I retire for the winter. There is something I want to ask. I dream a lot when I'm hibernating. Do Zen masters dream?"
Raven said, "Higgledy-piggledy."
Black Bear chuckled. "My dreams are like that, too -- all confused!"
Raven said, "Not only our dreams."
Black Bear asked, "Then how can Zen masters be distinguished?"
Raven stretched out her wings.

Meredith's Verse

"Look what we found in the park, in the dark. We will take him home. We will call him Clark. He will live at our house. He will grow and grow. Will our mother like this? We don't know." (Dr. Seuss, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish")

One breath, two breath, angry breath, sad breath.
Old Bodhidharma came from the west.
Why-ever he came, he came.
Whatever its meaning, he came.
Now here we are, we
Who face the wall in Bodhidharma's cave, we
Wall-sitters, wall-sitting.
It seems to make a difference; it
Seems to make no difference at all -- a
"Something, nothing," like Iago's purse.
We took it home.
It grew.
Still no word on Mother's approval.

Graham's Verse: "A Staggering Man"

a staggering man
in tuxedo and lace
is leaving the party
no hair out of place.

His party is leaving
in a flourish of bling.
They melt into darkness
the Raven doth sing.

Four and 20 blackbirds
baked in a pie
the Crow is in the know
about pie in the sky.

The tendrils of dreams
forgotten and gone
still influence empires
of king and of pawn.

The war they declare
So somber and dead.
Like life flowing out
of the top of my head.

Till death my last breath
and then gone and then gone.
For June after June
I am soon in the tomb
And then gone.

And then gone.
A staggering man
in tuxedo and lace.
All rested and tan
no hair out of place.
And then gone.

Case by Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith Garmon; additional verse by Graham Hubbel

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