I dreamed I woke up

I dreamed I woke up.

In this waking life my thoughts

are agate points and deep lagoons

that make ancient cities and heroes

and bust dakinis out of lunch boxes.

Everything is alive when I am awake.

I remember to swim in air

and fly in water, and ride moon-tigers

to the Moon Cafe, and the light in my head

is the light of the blue-white star.

I went back to sleep in a world

of fewer voices and more noise. Out here

in mossy woods, sleep life is pleasant.

It's good to watch a cedar shake her frills,

good to be surprised by lime on watermelon.

There are days I don't want to wake up.

Then there are days of pain and lost delight,

city days caught in time and trivial stories

when I forget that I am asleep

and can change the game if I awaken.

I cannot say whether the person writing this

is asleep in the world, or awake in the dream


Art: "Autoscopy" by Robert Moss

This poem is published in Here, Everything Is Dreaming: Poems and Stories by Robert Moss. Published by Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press.