Dreaming the Wounded Eagle

author’s note:

Up from the bottom
    of an old pond,
    that duckling
has seen something strange.
        -- Joso (trans. Beilenson/Behn)


DREAMING THE WOUNDED EAGLE

When the eagle plummeted from the sky

straight down into the lake

I felt so confused:
how could anything so powerful
crash--?--
how could something so grand
simply vanish--?

I awoke in such an astonished state--
I could not think

and so, began to feel
the desperate message
in my depths--

a message maybe a few
(or maybe many)
could also use
so I will translate
what the eagle silently told me:

now you've seen the wound--

so maybe now
you will go against
lower instinct
and push yourself down
and down
and down
into this shocking cold water--

will you finally save me?

Since that dream message
I've gone on countless dives
and though I can't yet claim
to have resurrected the eagle...

considering what I have raised
I can say:

I'm glad I disobeyed
the fear that warned me
to stay on dry land.

Observation of a Moth

dear reader:

Again: written about no one in particular.

Perhaps a precognition.  I hope.


OBSERVATION OF A MOTH

All day as she taps
on her keyboard she may seem
so ordinary to so many

but I've watched her brush her hair
in the soft lamplight
of a bedroom of shadows

as a moth flutters against the bulb...

© 2018, Michael R. Patton
finding Beauty: poetry ebook

Dreaming the Truth

author's note:

Heart attacks often occur in the morning hours during the last phase of REM (dream) sleep.


DREAMING THE TRUTH

The truth must actually be important:

otherwise why would my dreams
ruin a soft nourishing sleep
by revealing the true chaos
of my waking life?--

ruin, by revealing
my relentless distress

then add to that distress
by revealing
I’m not yet over the sorrow
I thought I’d put to rest
years ago

and then
at the end of night
stun me one more time
by revealing the love
behind my dislike
and the anger raging under
what I thought
was calm acceptance.

No wonder our hearts often burst
while we're asleep...

but maybe my dreams will be
a little easier on me
if I can wake myself
to more of the truth
amid the chaos of these days.

© 2018, Michael R. Patton
my war for peace: poetry ebook

Great Hermitage of Gray

author’s note:

I keep learning from old dreams.


GREAT HERMITAGE OF GRAY

Years ago in a dream
I saw the truth of my room:

the walls and floor, all dull gray--
even the light motes drifting
down from the ceiling:
dense gray.

Since that vision, I've worked
to escape my gray place
and maybe I have--because
though I still see
scary things in my dreams
I witness nothing so monotone.

But ever so often
in my waking hours
I revisit the room
because as a human being
I want to understand

and if I can raise myself
when I return
I'll again realize
the beauty and benefit
of that hermitage:

though gray, the sun rays
pour down from a skylight

and those high walls
create a great space--
an austere cathedral.

Oppressive, yes, but
power held in check
can build in strength
as our desire to break out
--to bloom--
grows in intensity.

I've still much to learn
but at least now I know why
I needed that gray room.

© 2018, Michael R. Patton
what I learned while alone: poetry ebook