In New York Times, Matthew Zapruder, author of “Why Poetry,” emphasizes an “intuitive dream-state” as “the special reward” of writing and reading poems.

Now looking at The New York Times online, having just discussed the waking dream-state of Scarlett O’Hara, I come upon an essay by a poet on poetry, which says this about waking dream-states and poetry:

“Coming upon a word, having it rise up out of the preconscious, intuitive dream-state and into the poem…is the special reward of being a poet, and a reader of poetry” (1).

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/books/review/understanding-poetry-is-more-straightforward-than-you-think.html

Apparently, poets enjoy dreamlike, altered states of consciousness, like Scarlett O’Hara, novelists, and people with multiple personality.

For further discussion of poets in this blog, search Dickinson, Bob Dylan, T. S. Eliot, Frost, Keats, Wordsworth, and Yeats.