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Reunion by Jeff Daniel Marion: American Life in Poetry #76

I'd guess we've all had dreams like the one portrayed in this wistful poem by Tennessee poet Jeff Daniel Marion. And I'd guess that like me, you too have tried to nod off again just to capture a few more moments from the past.
Reunion

Last night in a dream
you came to me. We were young
again and you were smiling,
happy in the way a sparrow in spring
hops from branch to branch.
I took you in my arms
and swung you about, so carefree
was my youth.

What can I say?
That time wears away, draws its lines
on every feature? That we wake
to dark skies whose only answer
is rain, cold as the years
that stretch behind us, blurring
this window far from you.


American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from "Lost & Found," The Sow's Ear Press, Abingdon, VA, 1994, by permission of the author. Poem copyright © 1994 by Jeff Daniel Marion, whose most recent book is "Ebbing & Flowing Springs: New and Selected Poems and Prose, 1976-2001," Celtic Cat Publishing, 2002. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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  • fiona8 silver member
    October 13
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    without dreams

    I think the richness of the dream shows the richness of a once love. It brought back a memory which was becoming a blur. Shortly after my husband died, I asked him for a picture in a dream. He came to me one night, and I can bring up that picture whenever I please.
    I like this poem.


  • starrynight3636
    October 12
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    In my opinion, the purpose of poetry is to express many different aspects
    of thought and feeling. Even if, and perhaps especially if, they are unpopular or terribly sad like this one.
    If skillfully written, it can evoke our deepest feelings, making them more understandable and easier to cope with. We can bring them out into the open and make us realize they are temporary states of mind.
    I applaud this subject matter because by exposing our deepest fears we can recognize that they are only part of the human equation.


  • grampabob1946 silver member
    October 12
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    A cold and lonely write.

    I don't understand the lines "blurring this window far from you."
    To me in this poem the author is saying my life is clearly mostly over, and there is nothing ahead to provide hope.
    Well, most likely my life is mostly over, but I have great hope. I hope for a spiritual world beyond this one.
    I think the best remedy for being sad is to have a cause: to help others human, animal, the environment--something.
    Friday I will be serving hungry people at the local soup kitchen. I still have a purpose!
    I may not have many days left, but I still have today. Pray God I use it wisely.