I normally do not remember dreams <br />That assail me when I sleep, <br />I normally do not want to; <br />And when I do remember them, <br />I tend to wake up in fear and trembling <br />Because the same God who terrorizes me in the day <br />With loneliness and depression <br />Frightens me at night <br />With heartbreaking images <br />Of relationships breaking <br />As violently as windows in a hurricane <br />Or with tender memories of lovely cats and a golden retriever <br />Who have long ago entered the grave; <br />I awake in tears and look under my bed <br />For my cherished and perished pets. <br /> <br />But two weeks ago, I had a dream that felt like a vision, <br />It was as clear as the azure sky <br />And it awakened me instantly like my mother’s voice <br />Calling to me to get ready for school when I was a small boy. <br />In the dream, I was doing my favorite activity, <br />Listening to music, playing one disc after another. <br />I first played something by Lucinda Williams, <br />I then put on an album by Tom Waits: <br /> <br />Tom sang with a crystalline clarity that his voice in real life would never allow <br />And he sang, “Mary Oliver was looking for a husband <br />But found a poet.” <br /> <br />This line has been running ceaselessly through my mind ever since, <br />I’d tell it to Mary if I could find her.<br /><br />Uriah Hamilton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tom-waits-and-mary-oliver/
