The Last Dream and More Questions
Last Updated on Sunday, 10 January 2010 15:53 Written by Norm Tucker Saturday, 09 January 2010 15:16
My new poem considers last and lost dreams in the context of visualizing the present and future and envisioning a society and a life we might become proud of. Too much to ask for?
The Last Dream and More Questions by Norm Tucker
Softly and gently – the dream
Somehow never realized –
Passed down from the old Methodist hymn,
Absorbed by our individual consciousness
And throughout Planet Earth
Into the Constellation – Dissipated.
Is violence and conflict and competition
Our nature, not, as we would hope,
Our daily reality beyond dreams
Of peace, wisdom, balance –
Those ideal demons, those chimeras traveling
Beyond hope to despair?
But do we give up?
Do we abandon our dreams and hopes?
Do we embrace ego and desire?
Or does the infinite solace
Of what might be, what could be, or should be
Motivate us to trudge beyond everyday oblivion?
Buried within the big picture is the little picture,
Us – you and me – persons, people, humans,
Do we count?
Can we count?
What can we do in our own small way
To move us into the dream - the living dream?
Perhaps nothing is the answer,
Just be – be is neither more nor less,
Neither here nor there – nowhere,
Be is nothing – not anything – not here,
Being ends the strife.
We become inanimate – concrete statues.
Does it finally matter?
Or are we destined to traverse the unknowable unknown
Destroying all before us
Bit by bit, inexorably, as we go?
And when this is accomplished
What then? – It will be over.
Words to the hymn Softly and Gently.
