-- Daydreams --

John Herlihy

Nights for dreaming; days for daydreams

Hope springs eternal by any clear means.

Nocturnal dreams arise in deep slumber;

Diurnal dreams arise from sheer wonder.

Daydreams born of hunger and solitude,

Filling the idle hours with their plenitude.

Persistent longing enjoyed as a king’s feast,

Chosen as one blessed, last but not least.

Daydreams born of misery, fear or regret,

Replacing all the sad hours so as to forget.

To see ourselves as successful to the core,

Friends and admirers and disciples galore.

Daydreams born of poverty and weakness;

Break crumbs never inspire, nor meekness.

The poor man is never the object of envy,

Undue meekness hardly thought friendly.

Daydreams born of the desert of the spirit,

Offering an oasis based on personal merit.

The story of a daydream can last all the day,

Brushing aside all the weary hours far away.

In daydreams as with love, no impossibilities,

No undue circumstances and no frivolities.

We think what we want, go wherever we go;

So much inspires, even things we don’t know.

Daydreams are born out of an excess of time,

Filling the empty heart cup with ideas sublime.

Emotions never truly felt, desires never knew;

Happiness never so poignant in this daily stew.

Daydreams are born out of an excess of desire;

Our dull hearts suddenly glow as a burning fire.

Images of love, the loved one, suddenly appear;

My ship of state never seemed so easy to steer.

Daydreams often born of a busy, overtaxed brain,

Reliving unattainable desires over and over again.

They warm our hearts just as they dazzle our sight;

They live by day, no need to bid them goodnight.

Daydreams born in the soft resonance of silence;

Music filling in the depths as an act of defiance.

In lonely hours, unending silence will never due;

Musical rhythms intoxicating and never untrue .

Daydreams are born into the cloth of life’s seam;

Daydreams mimic life itself which is but a dream.

The dream within the dream arrives on its own,

Creating a fantasy in which we are never alone.

Daydreams are never born of certainty and bliss;

When we know who we are, with nothing amiss.

Then our daydreams draw their shutters and fade,

Venturing in dark realms we are unwilling to wade.

Before all the world, the dreamer sees the dawn,

To see wonder eternal in the timid eyes of a fawn.

Daydreams thrown as flower petals along the way;

Treat softly lest you destroy the spirit of the day.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Friday 13 August 2021