Center of the Dream
I have been walking
out to the edge of my own name
to the place
where there are no names
and a voice says
listen
to the center of the dream
​
I have breathed
the mystery of waves
fallen into the light of stars
lived inside the songs
of unhurried stones
​
I have been walking
​
I have glimpsed the weight
of the soul
on the wings of a butterfly
hunted with foxes and coyotes
travelled
the ancient silence
inside the eye of the snake
​
I have been walking
I have feasted
under the wide arc
of a lonely sky
with the smallest
of the sunset colored
sand crickets
who taught me how to love
with my eyes
and see with my heart
I have been walking
​
I have made love
in the desert night
with the Aztec lizard god
who said come out from under
your human eyelid
surrender to the thunder
let the rain
enter your skin
​
I have been walking
​
I have fallen
under the broom
of the old woman in black
awakened
inside the eagle
laughed
with wise old infants
who taught me
how to play
​
with nothing in my hands
​
I have been walking
​
I have learned
from the earth
how to be still
in my spinning
​
from the wind
how to speak
my own language
​
from the sea
how to drown
and return
​
from the fire
how to dance
into the long night
​
And the voice says:
breathe
you are
the center of the dream
​
​
​
----Lisa Gale Garrigues
​
originally published in Southwestern American Literature
​
I
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