The Most Beautiful Dream in the World

i

It would be the most beautiful dream
in the world

If you spend the days of your life
   in song––

Singing
For those who care
   How much you want
      To give.

Making them listen
   Making them
       Love you

With your heart vibrating
   At the center of it all.

You could not fail

To find success and fame––
   More than you could ever desire.

ii

Yet even if you live no more
   Than a simple, quiet life,
Singing songs
   To the tea cups
      In your kitchen,
         Or the spoons––

And if I wrote my poems to you
   And you alone

There would be just as much loveliness
   In this world...perhaps more,
Than if your voice were amplified
   In a million ears
    Or my words cloned
         In a hundred thousand books.

iii

Art is the condition
   Between the song of the nightingale
      And silence--

It is life and
   The meaning of life

The way we must worship
   All that is beautiful.

iv

So because I believe this is good
   And because I believe this is true

Because art is love and
   In itself perfection--

I will spend my time reading poems
   To the sky
      And hope
You will sing to the trees––

Just to keep the clouds white
   Just to keep the leaves green.