The Dreamer
who dreams this night
awake with stars?
silence surrounds the river's sigh,
who dreams this?
the dark stone diminishing,
the cottonwood leaning,
the mist-kissed field.
who dreams
a sway, a curve,
a movement unto light?
If there be morning,
who sleeps,
who wakes,
who dreams?
Today I saw the dragon-fly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk; from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings; like gauze they grew;
Through crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew
Moondance
The moon, my love, reflects in every phase
His aspect, passion's steady wax and wane.
In beams quicksilver drenched, I glimpse,
again,
The glass, myself, yet altered by his ways
Of lunar magic. Full, the argent rays
With gentle kisses, tell me of my swain.
My fears eclipsed by love's unclouded rain,
His dance I join, to bask in night's cool
glaze.
Once more, a face, my own, the mirror's
shown,
Transformed by luminous unearthly light;
Today, tomorrow blend. It clears:
The visage of my love and I, now grown
In years, no longer counting lunar flight
But constant, sunrise in the morning sky.
My friends hear me claim I'm a dragon
They say, "You are crazy, I fear;
A dragon is nothing but legend;
I answer, to those who will hear:
What is a dragon? My friend, you are wrong
It's not just a mythical beast
Of all the things from which dragons are made
The physical form is the least
A dragon is power, but power controlled,
Held firmly in check by the will:
Power of spirit and body and mind;
True dragons rarely wound or kill.
Dragons seek knowledge and hoard it like
gold,
for knowledge can make the the world thiers;
They seek to fathom what is and might be;
A true dragon thinks, knows, and cares.
A third part is wisdom, and it governs all:
To know when to strike or to yield:
Wisdom to temper the knowledge with care,
For even truth may harm or heal.
My friend that's what being a dragon is
Far more than the scales or flame breath;
You may still decide that I'm crazy,
But I'll be a dragon 'til death.
