A Dream Fragment
That changed my waking day
At the ragged edge of an anxious dream
I glanced into a neighbor’s backyard
at the heart-shaped leaves of a catalpa tree
just beginning to flutter and arch
over a small patch of glistening grass
edged with white flowers countless as stars.
A pastel garden of tender buds bloomed,
fragile as infants birthed in the dark.
With that glance at a parallel world
thriving and growing so close to my own,
I felt the lifting of a heavy weight
and discovered a peace I rarely have known.
And although my alarm clock scattered my dream
like a blast of wind through a pile of leaves,
it could not erase the smile from my lips
recalling the renascence I had just seen.
Very often my dreams are the midwives of my poems and stories. Last night, after stumbling unhappily through a dream of many worries, I glanced (in my dream) at a neighboring yard. Instantly my anxiety faded as I saw the large leaves of a catalpa tree shifting in a warm, springtime breeze. My neighbor’s yard offered a…
