Streams & Dreams Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

Streams of imaginary rivers
Dreams of imaginary floods
Blood of imaginary sinners
Mud of imaginary memes*

So quails my heart at its prayers,
Those solitary lanthorns of despair,
As the childhood gaoler rings
The bell summoning all upstairs

To the cold dormitory of grief -
All who cannot summon up belief
In the old pathways thro the clouds,
The litany of those who cry out loud.

Times of imaginary tides
Rhymes of imaginary loves
Dove of imaginary floods
Blood of imaginary suicides

Protect and father my despair,
Be the twilight world of prayer
Where the timeless pain of yearning
Is the only source of learning.


6/11/1999