In dreams

 In dreams

John Clare Stokes

In dreams the blacks and whites

Of life take on swirling gusts

Of violet hues touched with

Glimmering golds...

In dreams the void and empty

Fills to overflowing in streams gurgling

Forth ultramarine and pure in a

Silvery sparkled flow...

In dreams the stark and sterile

Confines open to lush lands of

Verde grasses reaching

Infinite into secrets untold...

In dreams the parched and cracked

Ooze a rich raw umber as

Verona sprouts fill around our

Wiggled toes...

In dreams the lost and forgotten are

Led by a cadmium bright that

Winds high on cheer-thronged 

Avenues...

In dreams the dead and dying 

Are led from a caput mortuum deep

To a life forever painted anew

As awake in prismatic hues we dwell.

For Shirley Zecher and all the lovers of the colors of watery light