To the Dreamers

"Und die Seele unbewacht
will in freien Flügen schweben,
um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
tief und tausendfach zu leben." -- Hermann Hesse, "Beim Schlafengehen".

I wander aimlessly around
This world I cannot understand.
Bereft of touch by pleasure's hand,
My flowers wither on the ground.


I greet the day with loneliness,
Still pierced by strangers' empty stares
Wherein there are no worries, cares
About this brooding hopelessness.


The colours have but faded now.
This frantic, joyless land of grey
Has fed a colourless dismay,
A pallid heart that I allow.


Forgive me that the starry night
Is what I crave and what I yearn.
It has a life that I discern
Of beauty borne in light and blight.


I seek to thrill the heart inside,
But I am met with shallow grace,
And so abandon oft this place
To find a home I meet with pride:


Tonight I once again will dream,
Ascend to magic worlds of joy.
To live, to die, to build--destroy:
A freedom in an endless stream.

---

A poem I wrote intended for collaboration with the gifted Seda.