That old Arthur C. Clarke quote about technology so advanced it might as well be magic—that applies to sounds in the city, as well. The concrete beneath your feet as firm and as unyielding as physics allows is shaken by… what? There’s something down there. Something monstrous and strange in those tunnels. If I were a dragon (alas!), I’d hide in the subway tunnels that perforate NYC bedrock. Nobody would notice my rumblings or my fiery exhalations. I’d be just another sensory input for people beyond the ability to care.

"Dragons in Subway Tunnels" -- with "Organ Flagpole" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster

"Shae Hears 'I Will Follow' For the First Time" -- with "Area 51" by Tom Washatka

"Reflection Nebula" -- with "Black Hole" by Bill Gillard

"Five Strings and a Purpose" "Sparse Talent Squandered" "Send Not to Know for Whom" -- with "Slipstream" by John Mayrose

"Something Again" "Rainy Night Aubade" -- with Shadow Dance" by Ed Martin

"7 and 26 -- a song by Bill Gillard

"Ora et Labora -- with "5:13" by Bill Gillard

"Seven Sleepers" -- with "Suspend" by Paul Dietrich

"Egg Larva Pupa Imago" -- with "They are obviously sounds; that's why they are shadows" by Drew Whiting

"Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many.

More from Bill Gillard

Website: www.billgillard.com

Instagram: billgillard3

When we really think about it, when we trace the genealogy back back back, then we must come to terms with the fact that old great grandma Persimmon from the old country had a grand who was a fish with legs. That had to be an awkward family reunion with the scaly relations at one end of the table perhaps in a tray of cool mud while the more recent ancestors eyed them warily, certain that they were different but unable to articulate how it might matter. There are many ways to think about this, one of the many subjects that might possibly cross one’s mind on a train trip downtown. Here are some poems and stories to push you toward the middle of that reunion table.

"The Things that Joey Thinks About" -- with "whathathgodwrought" by John Mayrose

"Breakup GPS" "Behind Your Paisley Curtain" "Atlas of Regret" -- with "When Galaxies Collide" by Ed Martin

"She Believes She Believes She Believes" "She Held Me Like Dawn Behind Manhattan Skyline" -- with "Talking to Myself" by Offsite

"No New York" "6 Train Rising" -- with Shadow Dance" by Ed Martin

"On My Reptilian Origin" -- a song by Bill Gillard

"Five Strings and a Purpose" "Sparse Talent Squandered" Send Not to Know for Whom" -- with "Slipstream" by John Mayrose

"Dragons in Subway Tunnels" -- with "Organ Flagpole" by Tad Neuhaus, Joanna Dane, and Loren Dempster

"How to Pray to a Spider" -- with "War on Locks" by Offsite

"Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many.

More from Bill Gillard

Website: www.billgillard.com

Instagram: billgillard3

The Great Peshtigo Fire swept through Northeast Wisconsin on October 8, 1871 — the same night as the far more famous Great Chicago Fire. Chicago lost something like 300 souls. Peshtigo lost 2,500. A managed burn for clearing brush and timber was caught by fierce autumn winds and became an inferno no person could outrun, a firestorm with convection currents reaching thousands of feet and ground winds exceeding 110 miles per hour. Not everything that perished in that fire died that day. There are ghosts. There are always ghosts.

Track Listing

“Father Jack and the Book of Death” — with "Children Singing in Heaven" by Offsite

“Incident at the Vulcan Mill” — with "Peshtigo Dance" by Bill Gillard

“Labor for What Purpose?” — with "Drift" by Ed Martin

“Avalon” — a song by Bill Gillard

“Home” — with Oct Sweep" by Bill Gillard

“Your Love Suffuses” — with "Suffusion" by Bill Gillard

"Visions of Half Sleep" is a dreamlike soundscape, a collaboration among artists in northeast Wisconsin. It is Bill Gillard's words and voice along with music by many.

More from Bill Gillard

Website: www.billgillard.com

Instagram: billgillard3