The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily 1431: Going Home by Joan Kwon Glass
Jan 9, 2026
Explore the surreal world of dreams where familiar faces and places twist into the uncanny. The poem unfolds with haunting imagery, like a father slicing a tomato and a child grappling with a sense of dislocation. Voices echo with longing, capturing the strange comfort of home even when it's not quite right. Symbols of childhood, such as a sister with paper wings, intensify the poem's dreamlike quality. This reflection on memory and identity leaves listeners contemplating their own dream narratives.
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Children's Dream Reports
- Maggie Smith describes asking her children about dreams and hearing vivid, surreal accounts each morning.
- She recounts childhood dream-reading habits and using dream images in poems.
Dreams Offer Alternate Realities
- Dreams follow their own time and logic, offering alternate versions of people and places.
- Maggie notes that these unconscious images often provide startling metaphors useful for poetry.
Poems Can Feel Like Dreams
- The poem leaves the listener with the sensation of waking from a dream and searching for meaning.
- Maggie suggests surreal poems can feel like dreams that may be trying to tell us something.