darkening skies

Do you ever dream so deeply that the dream seems more distinct than your first wakening moments? Does it surprise you that, in your dream, you can see the past and present melt into one time? Do you realize that what binds them together is not only memory but also the imagining of what might have been? That the choices of your life may have turned on a single moment when you chose to let go of that step in order to go another way? And, do you wonder if the way you chose was the way to your authentic Self, or did you run away from what you could have been?

Amidst those kind of questions (and I confess, I don't have many answers to those I have just posed), I share this morning poem.

Darkening Skies

I savor the season of the Winter Solstice.
I slumber with darkening skies.
As brown birds fluff their wings to warm,
I wrap a green coverlet around my shoulders.
I dream deeply of a friend
who walked tall and called my name
with a melody of the South in his voice.
It was a time of the past,
but, upon awakening,
he is with me now, holding my hand.