Dreams and Things

Before daylight took the stage

I sat as lamplight threw my reflection

in the sliding glass door looking out

on the wide world still asleep.

A darker vision of myself stared

back at me, dim but discernible.

How did I grow so old so fast?

Where is the young buck I used to be

drunk on impossible dreams and beautiful things?

How did I so fast grow so old?

Yet daylight waits for no man,

and the light always overcometh.

So my twin faded until there was

nothing to sense but everything –

a stirring world of quaking aspens

and the neighbor’s black cat padding

luckily on the fenceposts and an

older sober me rising to give myself

to needful beautiful things.

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9 Comments

  1. Carolyn Mercer on October 13, 2019 at 12:20 pm

    Beautifully written!

  2. Angela Garrett on October 13, 2019 at 12:41 pm

    John, I understand and ask myself the same question. My mom has dementia and I moved back to Texarkana, leaving a life in Washington that I enjoyed. I took a job that is a terrible match for me, but decent jobs in this area are limited. My son is married and has his own life. I feel like all of my happiness is in the past and I have nothing to look forward to. I remember being young, hopeful and optimistic about life. Now I feel old, alone and despondent. Somehow the dark side of life has engulfed me and I wonder if I will ever be happy again. I miss the person I used to be.

    • John Taylor on October 13, 2019 at 5:44 pm

      Life grows older by the minute. You can’t catch enough words to write in the moment. Life grows older the more you try and write about it; experiences out of your total comfort zone give you momentary earthly bliss but the ultimate, sustainable earthly bliss is understanding you are saved by God’s grace.

    • Margaret on October 13, 2019 at 5:53 pm

      Angela, I understand this loss. Washington to Texarkana is indeed a giant shift. May the beautiful things still find you. May they rise to meet you in the darkness, revealing a path that brings comfort and solace in your ache. Blessings and presence reaching out to you now.

  3. JACKY on October 13, 2019 at 1:12 pm

    So glad you are writing to the universe again, John. I’m not sure if you have been away or I have — but it’s a beautiful thing to read words that speak for so many of us . Thank you !

  4. abby on October 13, 2019 at 2:08 pm

    “needful beautiful things”

    amen and amen.

    thank you.

  5. Margaret on October 13, 2019 at 5:48 pm

    Ah…breath to the lungs: “an older sober me rising to give myself to needful beautiful things.” Thank you.

  6. Sally Bowen on October 13, 2019 at 7:13 pm

    John, you touched my heart. Thank you. Sally

  7. Sherrey Meyer on October 13, 2019 at 8:27 pm

    Thank you for bringing to the light of day the feelings many of us are experiencing faster than ever anticipated. Beautifully written!

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