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