Come Dream-Roving With Me!

   This introductory poem is finally nearing its final version. I still wish to perfect one stanza that, to me, doesn't quite flow as smoothly as I would like. However, I am satisfied with the rest of it.

   I would like to show you aspiring writers how humbly this poem began. It took me just over five years to reach this point. I wrote the first rough draft on June 11th, 2003 and this next-to-final draft today on October 1, 2008. It has been holed up most of that time, as I am a strong believer that masterpieces must write themselves and some just take their own sweet time in doing so. Please click here to read the original rough draft and I am sure you will be surprised at how big of a difference there is.

Come Dream-Roving With Me!

Final version

Dim the lights.
Good night,
Sleep tight,
Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Tonight you will come dream-roving with me!
What I shall see
And what you shall hear
I shall hear
And you shall see.

I will paint you a scene
Painstakingly mixing the paint drop by single drop
Filling the scene until it is as clear as celadon
That you may see what I see as I see.

We will together leap with glee
Just like a deer
Or we will have shaking knees
Because of what we see and hear
In dreamland.

You will speak for me a spool
Stitching together the yarns with painstaking detail
With words as vivid as a knitted sweater
That I may hear what you hear as you hear.

We will together greet what is to come
Be it true or untrue.
Up on cloud nine or down in the lowest ravines
We shall go there together.
Be it true or untrue,
We will be the harbingers of events to come
In dreamland.

We will dictate for our little ones a story
Choosing our words precisely,
Perfecting our sentences just so.
They will, with their inner eye and inner ear,
Hear what I hear and see what you see, just so.

Tomorrow night they will come dream-roving with us!
What we shall see
And what they shall hear
We shall hear
And they shall see.

Soon,
We all will have yarns to spin and scenes to fill
For our little ones
Because, you see,
With a book,
A stick of wood and lead,
And a little word play
We may do just as we please!