Someday -- A Poem About Dreams by Charlene Groves

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Late yesterday I learned it was National Poetry Day. To honor the day, belatedly, I share this poem by Charlene Groves.

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I met Charlene Groves at a coffeehouse sometime in mid-to-late 1974, a blind writer and poet from Martinsville, New Jersey. Though I’d written some stories in college — a couple of which to this day I regret having lost — I had not yet determined to pursue a career as a writer.

Charlene was roughly 30 at that time. In addition to fixing music boxes, she was a prolific author, having produced numerous short stories and countless poems. She also had two or three novel manuscripts under her belt, in the sci-fi genre.

Over the decades we've stayed in touch, she being one of the many special people that have inspired me in various ways. This is a poem she wrote called Someday, sometime in the 60s or early 70s. I love the way she plays with language to produce imagery that is unexpected.

Someday

I spend my days shooting darts at dinosaurs, 

Fighting fire-breathing dragons with a wooden sword;

I take time to allow toy men and animals the chance to live

For a while in the real world of make believe. 

I spend my days searching for the beginning of a new poem, 

Dribbling letters on paper to form words. 

Dreaming of when we can do handstands on moonbeams, 

But there's always a teacher somewhere

Pulling me back into the darkness of the classroom, 

That I might be enlightened. 

I can feel the sun sometimes, 

Even when it's raining, 

And taste peanut butter without the actual having. 

But someday I'll be part of the earth again, 

One day, suitcase in hand, 

I'll put my feet on the open road, 

And walk towards the sun, 

Eating a box of chocolate covered raisins. 

Then I'll build a house, 

And maybe write another book, 

Before the world ends. 

Maybe I'll be a kite in a tree, 

Or a snowflake caught in a snowman's ear. 

Someday maybe I'll learn to give with my whole being, 

Because I want to, 

Because I need, 

And feel good about the giving, 

Not just talk. 

And maybe, 

Just maybe, 

Someday, I'll stop saying maybe, 

And be.

Copyright Charlene Groves

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Check out Charlene's wonderful poem The Hermit.