Visions

by Susan Budd

“Visions” is a cycle of twenty-five story poems that together create a phantasmagoria of color, light, and art. Rhetorically sophisticated yet playful, the language is richly descriptive, evoking the fantastic and mythical realms of dream, madness, and vision. Meandering through these imaginary realms is a whimsical cast of characters seeking meaning, magic, and metamorphosis. A blind artist is driven to madness by dreams of light and color. An old woman steps out of time and becomes a child again. An odalisque luxuriates in sensuous indolence. A lonely little girl meets a very unusual friend on the moon. And more! In this kaleidoscopic collection, Susan Budd takes the reader on a psychedelic odyssey of the imagination where the boundaries between reality and fantasy are blurred.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2014

About the author

Metaphysical questions about consciousness and dreams have always fascinated me. From childhood, I loved reading fantasies, myths, and fairy tales. I loved reverie and introspection. Later I studied philosophy of mind and the spiritual mysticism of East and West. I explored visionary literature and art. I scrutinized my own mind. Now I’m a professor of philosophy and literature at the City University of New York.

My first book was Visions, a montage of psychedelic dream poems. Visions was born of my fascination with the mind and its modes of perception. It was also strongly influenced by my love of art and music. My novella, Felicity, is a dreamlike philosophical fable about the nature of reality and the meaning of life.

Reviews

[Jose Moa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book by Susan Budd ,Visions ,is a collection of poem tales,where in some the reality and dream are mixed,others are surrealist kaleidoscopic sensations,others mistic or nostalgic experiences,many with a touch of orientalism.

The style is i think influenced by the modernism literarian stream (the spanish languaje mentor is Ruben Dario )

For me there are remarkable poem tales ,as the one inspired by the beautiful picture by Frederick Bridgeman ,The Siesta,where a odalisca is lying in a couch,also the series inspired by Gauguin pictures of south seas , the nostalgic Winter or the cosmic Out of Time.