At night upon my pillow, a healing kingdom comes,
it wakens like Atlantis while my consciousness succumbs.
It plays out all its terrors, it plays out its delight,
in that strange land of dreaming in the necessary night.
And I am there observing, an exile in my mind,
those sly and mighty rebels, both the killers and the kind.
And some would rule the moment, and some would rule the most,
and I embrace the many as the dream world’s gracious host.
I see the many selves I am, the hurt and frightened boy,
the man whose lost his promises, the child who lost his toy,
the wise man and the warrior, the wicked and the weak,
I learn from all and everyone, I listen to them speak.
I greet the lord of darkness, I greet the lord of light
I know that light and darkness meet as lovers in the night.
And out of all their knowing, their hurting and their play,
my light time life is richer as the shadows turn to day.
1979