On Lucid Dreaming
Rent from DeepDyve- On Lucid Dreaming
To experience lucid dreaming, a body must lie still, arms at her sidesfor at least twenty minutes, breathing evenly, dismissing the impulseto swallow. After only five minutes, my flesh slid into another stateas my thoughts slowed, beta waves to alpha waves, but I broke a rule—I opened my eyes. The ceiling fan on, the lamp with the energy-savingbulb without mercury vapor, the wind chime with a cedar pendulumI brought indoors, and a family of angels with words in granite,peace, love, and tranquility. No one even started dreaming,and neither did I, never mind lucidly. I arose to look up the partsof a chime and realized pendulum is not one. O-ring, clapper,and wind catcher, also known as a feather. [End Page 163]
Karen An-Hwei Lee is the author of Phyla of Joy (Tupelo, 2012), Ardor (Tupelo, 2008) and In Medias Res (Sarabande, 2004), winner of the Norma Farber First Book Award. Lee wrote two chapbooks, God’s One Hundred Promises (Swan Scythe, 2002) and What the Sea Earns for a Living (Quasi Press, 2014). Her book of literary criticism, Anglophone Literatures in the Asian Diaspora: Literary Transnationalism and Translingual Migrations (Cambria, 2013), was selected for the Cambria Sinophone World Series. She earned an mfa from Brown University and a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley. The recipient of an nea grant, she serves as full professor of English and chair at a liberal arts college in greater Los Angeles.
