Just Before Waking

In the dream

just before waking

I held in my hands

the most beautiful book,

precious as an

illuminated manuscript:

the stories

of people’s lives.

I saw the artists,

understated

but unshakeable.

who crafted these works,

sifting the stories

until they found gold

carefully rendering them

with the alchemy of art

into volumes we could hold:

a talisman against the dark times,

alight with the flame

of the human spirit.

Awakening,

empty handed and alone,

under the spell cast by dreaming,

I gather moments

when the human heart

lies bare for all to see,

when we warm our hands

at the hearth of human connection,

so that the light we shine,

like the fires of Olympus,

illuminates the pages

in the books of our lives.