Nearly forty years ago, I had dream. In the dream, I was leafing<\/p>\n
through Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections. <\/em>A piece of paper<\/p>\n fell out and on it was written, poem-like<\/p>\n A poem wants a poem<\/p>\n A dream wants a dream<\/p>\n This little dream has become the animating spirit of my work<\/p>\n ever since.<\/p>\n It is always a deep pleasure to me when someone responds to<\/p>\n one of my dreams or poems with a dream or poem of their own.<\/p>\n In response to my recent poem, “How the War on Reality Ended,”<\/p>\n my long-time friend Tony Albino sent me this poem.<\/p>\n ——————————————————————————-<\/p>\n There once was a girl named Alice,<\/p>\n A comely thing who befriended birds<\/p>\n And trees and once, a rabbit without malice.<\/p>\n For she knew what needed to be known,<\/p>\n That plumbing life\u2019s depths was a challenge<\/p>\n To understand, to grasp, to measure one\u2019s soul,<\/p>\n Not in terms of success or failure or even balance<\/p>\n But against the one whose blood was carried in a chalice.<\/p>\n Content with silence, she spoke to none.<\/p>\n A wave and a smile but nothing more.<\/p>\n At a hilltop she\u2019d stare wide-eyed at the sun.<\/p>\n Letting it pour a spreading kindness,<\/p>\n a warmth she hoped would keep her from being shunned<\/p>\n by all those who thought they knew her ways, her thoughts,<\/p>\n but if they really found a way to know her they\u2019d be stunned<\/p>\n to discover how easy their knowledge could be undone.<\/p>\n She spoke water to rivers, wind to trees<\/p>\n and once while whispering to a flower<\/p>\n she gave directions to a troop of passing fleas,<\/p>\n who danced and twirled at being acknowledged<\/p>\n by this girl whose voice floated like a midsummer\u2019s breeze<\/p>\n full of spice and song and hints of saffron<\/p>\n that could make any who were ill at ease and hard to please<\/p>\n smile at nothing and laugh at anything, even their knees.<\/p>\n But deep within was a discontent<\/p>\n that slid as if lying loose on a ship<\/p>\n unbound and unmoored, a shadowy vagrant<\/p>\n whose sudden shift would throw her off course<\/p>\n and into a fog-bank of torment,<\/p>\n her soul close-hauling a buffeting wild sea<\/p>\n whose dark intent threatened to consume and disorient<\/p>\n her every attempt to stay unencumbered and silent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly forty years ago, I had dream. In the dream, I was leafing through Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections. A piece of paper fell out and on it was written, poem-like A poem wants a poem A dream wants a dream This little dream has become the animating spirit of my work ever since. It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-soon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}