My memories of my dreams are often very strange and incoherent. They don’t usually tell much of a story. One minute I’ll be eating a crepe and the next I’m sleeping in a sink. Why I had a dream about sleeping in a sink I do not know. I also often have dreams that reflect the routine of my life. Once I dreamed that I woke up for school and as I was brushing my teeth my alarm clock really did wake me up. Once on the very rare occasion I’ll have a dream where I realize that I am dreaming. Those dreams are amazing because I realize I have the power to do whatever I can possibly imagine.

as I’m brushing my teeth
the alarm jolts me out of bed—
false awakening

just as I’m biting
into a delicious crepe
I wake up

this is a dream…
I soar
at the realization

Jessica Villarreal

I recently had a crazy dream. In it, I was hunting tigers. I was hunting tigers in an RV. We, I was in a group, were hunting tigers by driving the RV through houses and looking for tigers. The RV kept plowing through houses until we crashed and started running down an alley between houses. We crashed through a wall and ended up in a gymnasium where a basketball game was going on. It was Millikin versus U of I and we became the basketball team somehow. To win the game, all we had to do was make one basket. But they weren’t normal baskets; we had to fling note cards into printers. We lost because some girl kept printing from the basket we needed to score in blocking the note cards. We were then attacked by crows.

tiger hunting turns
to basketball
crazy dream

weird dreams
about tigers and basketball
what did I eat?

basketball dream
and I’m playing
what a nightmare!

Andy Jones

One of the most vivid and memorable dreams I have ever had occurred when I was about in 4th grade. Now, whoever reads this must be warned that my dreams are quite complex, nonsensical, disjointed, and quite ridiculous, as any good dream should be. So here it goes...

It starts off with me walking home from school, just as I normally did each day. Suddenly, a huge tour bus pulls up to the side of the road, blocking my path. It came screeching to a halt. I stood in shock for a moment, then I did what anyone else would do in a situation like this—I began flapping my arms and doing a sort of breaststroke kick (which made sense because I was a swimmer, and breaststroke was my best event.) I was effortlessly lifted into the air, and began flying away from the strange bus. I was in midair, when the bus doors opened and I realized that the people emerging from the bus were the one and only SPICE GIRLS—the object of every 4th grade girl’s fantasy growing up in the nineties. Baby Spice pleaded with me to come down and join them on their tour because they were in desperate need of my talents. I was to become the 6th Spice Girl! Oh, boy was I pumped!

I hopped on the bus and immediately was whisked away to the stage for a concert. I found myself alone in front of thousands of screaming fans. It was then I realized that they weren’t screaming in adoration, but they were actually laughing because I was somehow completely naked! Yikes! This was when I woke up in a sweat, grateful to be safe in bed....and in my pajamas!

a flap of my arms
I am lifted
into the air

I step on the stage
the crowd erupts--
naked

13-year-old fantasy
becoming the 6th Spice Girl
don’t wake me up!

awake in a sweat
check under the covers
pajamas intact

Alyssa Thompson

The dream that I have in my head as a memory is a dream that I actually had as a reoccurring dream when I was younger. This dream started lurking in my sleep after I saw the non-animated version of “The Jungle Book.” In this version real animals roamed the screen, and some of them were rather scary, at least to a little girl. The one character in the movie that haunted my memories the most, and as a result made many appearances in my dreams was the snake. It was large long slimy scary snake. His slithering tongue c made me squirm, and the terror the snake struck in me while watching the film carried over into my drams. THe dream itself had little to do with the story “The Jungle Book.” In the dream I would be in the world of slides and ladders, somewhat like the board game “shoots and ladders,” and while I was in the world I would be running away from the snake in “The Jungle Book.” I would scurry up and down ladders, and sling myself down slides, and all the while the snake chased after me threatening to wrap its slimy body around my small childlike frame. Whenever I would awake from this dream my body would be clenched and sweat would trickle down my temple. Realizing that it was only a dream I would snuggle into the mountain of stuffed animals that surrounded me, fiddle with my “blanky” and fall back to sleep.

adrenaline rush
my eyes whip open
late night terror

slimy snake slithers
his tongue
threatens my ear

slides and ladders
I run
and he creeps closer

goodnight…
again I dream
of slithering skin

Kersten Haile

Since I normally don’t dream because I’m so exhausted by the time I go to sleep I decided to do a twist on yours.  Sorry.  I haven’t had a long lasting dream for awhile or at least I haven’t had one that was vivid enough that I remembered it in the morning.

a bright street light
noisy neighbors
no sleep tonight

I blackout
and don’t remember
exhaustion

long nights
I only wish
for a dream

two hours
of sleep tonight
did I sleep at all?

Amanda Aukerman

I have this recurring dream where I am in a huge house with a ton of children. We are all orphans, and we generally love living in this huge house because it has every toy imaginable. Every so often, however, our house goes into a panic. This man comes around (he sort of looks like Zorro), with a huge black hat and a long, pointy mustache. If we do not hide when he comes around and searches the house, and if he sees us, we automatically die. I am absolutely terrified of him (and death obviously) so whenever he comes I am afraid he will catch and kill me. Whenever he comes I am wearing a little mermaid nightgown and my hair is curled and I have bare feet. I always hide underneath a couch in this fort that the orphans built and my heart is pounding so loudly I think he will hear me. He can never find me so I always live.

in my nightgown
under the couch—
safe

black hat
matches his heart...
my worst fear

Little Mermaid nightgown
my heart pounds
right through it

Lindsay Scully

Well I have been having this really weird recurring dream of how I’m a drug kingpin in like this sin city like dirty grimy city. And I keep on sending out my dealers to sell drugs and all of my dealers our my friends. But then the dream changes to I’m some kind of law enforcement officer and I’m in a shooting match with myself and all of the dealers. Its really weird and honestly makes no sense. Oh and I think I end up getting shot near the end or so but then it feels like something important is about to happen and then my alarm rings and wakes me up.

a nighttime
full of adventure
ruined by an alarm

Pat Thacker (11)

a kingpin looks on
as he sends his friends out
to do his dirty work

I Will never know what
is so important
I hate alarms

I had a dream that aliens were coming to get me. When they came they built robot goats that flew and spun around. I’m not really sure why, but it was really scary. I went around trying to save the world from these aliens, and of course I did.

spinning goats
coming to get me
must use rockets

to save the world
from aliens
goats must die

news emergency special
aliens
and robot goats

Daniel Fishel

I really haven’t had any dreams that I remember lately, so I am going to write about my childhood dream. I hope this is alright. Anyway when I was a kid my dream was to get a full ride basketball scholarship to the University of Illinois and play under Theresa Grentz. After four years at the U of I, I would be drafted by the WBNA and play for the Seattle Storm. I would become an all-star and have my own shoe line with Nike.

holding a jersey
in my hands
“Wildman 33”

paid millions of dollars
playing basketball
a child’s dream

the best of the best
living the life…
only in dreams

Elise Wildman

I don’t typically remember my dreams, but one I remember from a long time ago was I was laying in my bed, and all of a sudden some sort of monster jumped out from beneath my bed. I tried to run away to my parent’s room (because I knew it would be safe there), but I just couldn’t run fast enough. I’ve had a lot of dreams about running, but running very slow. It was almost as if my feet were stuck in molasses.

running
I can’t seem
to get away

lying in bed
a monster jumps out
AHHHH!

Erin Knott (7)

During the winter of my junior year of high school, I recall a time when a big snow/ice storm was supposed to come through. Everyone was anticipating the storm and knew without a doubt that we would have a snow day. The teachers were already planning schedule changes "just in case," and even they admitted that they wanted one. I went home, and did my homework that night, though was immensely relieved to know I would not have to go to school the next day--I was burnt out and exhausted. When I had gone to bed, the snow storm had already begun. That night I dreamed that I woke up the following morning. Like any morning when I know it's snowed, I peered through the blinds of the window next to my bed, expecting the world to be covered in blinding white and the road to be invisible; I was mortified by what I saw. The sun was shining almost a cartoon yellow, the grass was bright green and flowers were in bloom. The road was perfectly clear. There was no possible way we would NOT have school in this weather and I felt this immense sense of dread since I hated going to school as it was. I couldn't understand how this was happening. However, when I woke up, for real, all was right in the world; the ground was covered in snow and school was cancled.

flowers in bloom
among green grass
... in the dead of winter

Aubrie Cox (6)

snowstorm
countered
by spring nightmare

peer through
plastic blinds
snow day?

Since I never really remember my dreams, I'll go for a reoccurring one from when I was in grade school. I was at my grade school--all the doors were locked and, for some reason, I couldn't leave the grounds. What was worse, was that there would be a whole bunch of dinosaurs there, too. The weird thing was, they were all herbivores. Then a long-neck (brachiosaurus, I think?) dinosaur would bite my head off and I would wake up with a falling feeling or actually fall out of my bed....I had to get one of those bed guards so I wouldn't fall anymore.

bare claws
and tiny arms
in amber

frozen in ash
the dregs of a
lost generation

locked doors
and no open window
what then?

a sensation
falling in my stomach
zzzz...CRASH!

trapped-
an arm's reach away
from safety

dusty gravel
between my toes
holding his hand

alone
terror fills me
dinosaurs

watching Minnie
on the bathroom wall—
timeout

Michelle Dixson

I don’t know why, but this is the first dream that came to mind when this was brought up. I had it when I was still in early grade school, but its one of the most vivid in my memory.

The dream: I was in my mother’s car and we were driving in a grand canyon like setting. My sister was in the back, and I was sitting next to my mother in the front. Then we stopped at a taco bell and my mom got out and started talking to some other person who was standing at the front of the store. I then climbed over into the driver’s seat and started driving the car.

That’s it. It’s not much, but it still stands out in my mind, which I kind of find odd…

winding path
sloping upward—
the Grand Canyon

mother’s talking…
with no license
I begin to drive

fast food everywhere—
even in my
dreams

Brett Coffman

Dream summary: I started off the dream in a bus with a lot of my classmates, one of which being my best friend. We were all in sleeping bags and the bus was in the middle of a dark valley with old trees and a haunted house. Just around the corner was a white palace. I tried to talk to my friend, but he just ignored me and talked to someone else, so I got out of the bus and went over to the white palace. When I got inside I found it was occupied by Orcs. They invited me to join them and I did for a while, but then I decided to check out the gift shop (yes, they had one.) While there I went into an air conditioning vent and found a disco floor that was hidden in the palace. For some reason it came to me in a flash that if I danced incorrectly across it I would be instantaneously killed. Then I turned into Optimus Prime (?) and started to disco dance to the other side. A lot of Orcs tried to follow me and stop me from reaching it, but they danced wrong and thus were stopped dead in their tracks (pun-tastic!) After I got out of there (I got nothing for my endeavor) not much more happened. Just some dialogues with the Orcs and other people that were there really.

we wait in the school bus,
sleeping bags
to keep us warm

a white palace
of evil—
disco floors?

Gordon Gilmore (7)

as Optimus Prime
I take on the dance-floor;
his most difficult challenge yet

Gordon Gilmore (5)