Dreamlands I • a voice in the night

for some of us perhaps it came as a drive to power to do to control to reshape the world for others of us perhaps it came as a quest for wisdom to know to understand to contain the world for others of us perhaps it came as a call to worship to adore to venerate to glorify the world and who will say that one alone is the one true way or that all of these together are the only ways there are for some of us for me it came as a quiet voice in the night listen it said i have a tale to tell you i have a verse to recite i have a song to sing i have a tune to play listen or look and i would wake up with that whisper echoing in my ears or see upon the black ceiling of my darkened room words spelled out in glowing crystalline letters lines that brought tears to my eyes and half-choked sobs to my throat lucky i was if i could write them down before they faded from my sight i have wandered in the dreamlands and brought back these souvenirs but how could i have a drive to power there of all places or seek to chart and map where even the roads shift about or glorify what has all the glory it will ever need i am led by the hand by the word by the song by the dance through the unutterably fair through the unspeakably foul through the many-coloured land through the land of no colours and if the dance leads to a pleasant summer grove or over the edge of a tall sheer cliff above rocky terrain should i complain who chose to follow