The Dreams that Shake Me Awake

Painting by Jennifer Elam

How might I name the thunder 
rumbling inside the landscape of my heart,
the nightmares that shake me awake?

And dare I follow those threads? 
What if they become a woven rope 
rising high into a bell tower? 

And what if the bell urges me to remember 
the churnings still within?
What if it cries out, “pull hard, pull hard!”

what then?

Michael S. Glaser

Michael S. Glaser has published eight volumes of his own work (most recently The Threshold of Light with Bright Hill Press) and has served as Maryland's poet laureate. He co-edited the Complete Poems of Lucille Clifton. The meetingroom he loves best is at Glenthorne in Grasmere, UK. Contact: michaelsglaser.com.

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