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“The Skull, the Dream, and the Dancer”
In the land of dreams, skull-bound, I am an eye only:
voiceless to call out or speak, a wanderer,
Without ears to hear music, without breath for weeping,
unsleeping, without solace, without even madness.
In the land of dreams, skull-bordered, a dancer dances
across a gulf from which music rises (I cannot hear it).
In the manner of dreams the abyss is as narrow as harpstrings
but too wide to reach over; and besides, I am handless.
An eye only, watching a dancer dancing
to music she only can hear.
Dearer to me than any music: closer than thought,
yet not to be touched. A dancer’s dancing,
to the deaf, is a mystery.
It is the way of beauty, to be beautiful.
In the land of dreams, skull-shadowed, I am an eye.
Footless to dance to anyone’s music, deaf and alone,
but after all: I have an eye, watchful wanderer,
under the ridge of my bony brow.
In the land of dreams, skull-deep, I can see.
May you be spared the fulfillment of dreams.
Despite all this: in the land of dreams a dancer is dancing
and fairer is the dance than any seen waking.
It is something, after all, to see beauty,
to touch dreams, even to lose them, to be at least an eye
in the land of dreams, in the skull’s hollow.
It is something to know that the music is there.by Bradley W. Schenck
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posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 12:15 AM on February 17 [8 favorites]