Jeffrey Hollar: Dreamer of Dreams

A DREAM REALIZED

In one of my first blog postings, Dreamer of Dreams, I quoted two stanzas of a poem that I had written during my personal Dark Ages. I referenced the fact that, assuming the poem had ever been completed to begin with, I had never bothered to retain a copy of it. I also made reference to the fact that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a condition tailor-made for writers.

In the spirit of that belief, that unfinished poem has been sitting restlessly in the back of my brain. It is not unlike being on an interminably long plane flight sitting in front of that delightfully annoying little moppet who kicks the back of your seat the entire time. You want to be dignified and not stoop to their level but inside you are shrieking, "Enough already!!"  So, in an effort to get that poetic monkey off my back and stop the seat kicking (I love a good mixed metaphor) I sat down and completed Dreamer of Dreams. I hope that you both enjoy the poem and come to appreciate the journey I undertook to bring it here to you.

Dreamer of Dreams


We are the poets and dreamers of dreams
Who know nothing in life is not more than it seems.
Who dare to be different and see without eyes
Who wonder and ponder and often surprise.

We are the poets, the makers of verse
For whom rhythm and meter and rhyme are a curse.
Who struggle to take what we think and we feel
And put it to paper and thus make it real.

We are the poets and slaves to the word
Who try to make lovely the truly absurd.
Who fight to bring order to fragments and bits
And shoe-horn it all into something that fits.

We are the poets who try to keep touch
With quatrains and couplets and all of that such.
Who know there are forms that we really should keep
But who throw that aside when emotions run deep.

Yes we are the poets and dreamers of dreams
Who know that in spite of our plans and our schemes
We may find no glory or coins to buy bread
And won’t garner glory ‘til after we’re dead.

While such is our lot and some think us insane
Tomorrow we’ll do it all over again.
We know what we do can’t be foolish or wrong
If it helps make a world where we truly belong.

Jeffrey Hollar is half Klingon, half Ferengi, visiting Earth in an attempt to negotiate a merger. He is currently working on a novella and a collection of zombie stories with his wife, Lisa McCourt Hollar. Jeff writes almost daily for his blog, The Latinum Vault, found at http://www.jeffreyhollar.com.