Hold fast. « Land o’ Sunshine

Hold fast.

February 3, 2008 at 3:06 am | In daily grind, silent poetry reading |

Sunshine Daddy and I just finished watching “Bridge to Terebithiah” and it reminded me of a poem. It is one in which keeps resurfacing in my life. In honor of Silent Poetry Reading, I’d like to share it with you.

Right now, as a mother of young children, it seems something to instill in them. As we adults worry about money, life, and the future, the kids are living in their world of imagination. I hope they continue to hold fast to a dream, no matter how small.

Hold Fast Your Dreams

Louise Driscoll

Hold fast your dreams!

Within your heart

Keep one, still, secret spot

Where dreams may go,

And sheltered so,

May thrive and grow-

Where doubt and fear are not.

O, keep a place apart,

Within your heart,
For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.

Let wish and magic work at will in you.

Be sometimes blind to sorrow. Make believe!

Forget the calm that lies

In disillusioned eyes.

Though we all know that we must die,

Yet you and I

May walk like gods and be

Even now at home in immortality!

We see so many ugly things-

Deciets and wrongs and quarrelings;

We know, alas! we know

How quickly the color in the west,

The bloom upon the flower,

The bloom upon the breast

And youth’s blind hour.

Yet, keep within your heart

A place apart

Where little dreams may go,

May thrive and grow.

Hold fast–hold fast your dreams!

Although Driscoll’s poem isn’t the first one I think of when someone asks for a favorite poem, it is (as all “good” writing should) striking that resonance in my life right now. May you hold fast your dreams.

Happy St. Brigid Day! Only six more weeks of winter.