Did you look last night in the mirror of dreams
or did you flinch and turn away?
I know: you may not want to see yourself
as others see you or worse,
without masks or disguises
in a light that reveals every blemish.
You may not be ready to see who is with you
that you don't see on ordinary days:
the spider, the red boar, the whore,
the dead drunk, the priestess with purple eyes.
So you rush past the mirror and shut the door,
wishing for no more dreams. Wish strong enough
and you may turn the mirror to the wall
or crack it from side to side.
Breaking the dream mirror is worse luck
than breaking the other kind. Do this, and you break
your connection to a wiser self. You exile part of your soul
and forfeit your power to know yourself.
You lose your inner compass. You no longer hear
the ancestors who are calling, calling.
You still the voice of conscience.
Soon you are lost in the delusions of the day.
There may be dragons in your dreams
but when you face them you find
that they guard your deepest treasures.
It is the denial of dreams that breeds monsters.
Keep your dream mirror clean and bright,
look in it every night and you'll keep soul in the body,
fly in a starry robe, and discover you can
step through the looking glass into worlds of wonder.
- Robert Moss
Esalen, Big Sur, November 11, 2016
Art: Titian, "Woman with Mirror"
