A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

i sent my soul into the invisible - Omar Khayyam (Rubaiyat)

I sent my soul into the invisible,

Some letter of that after life to spell.

And by and by my soul returned to me

And answered, I myself am heaven and hell.

-translated by Edward Fitzgerald

When babies smile - Michael Jackson

When dreamers dream and kiss their lover

And rainbows weave and splash their color

Those are moments so gloriously alive

We take the plunge, take the dive

Into the abyss

We are suspended awhile

Those are moments when babies smile.

Those are moments when fate is unsealed

Nothing is impossible and we are healed

We can soar, we can fly

Walk on fire, navigate the sky

In the light of a glittering star

There’s no distance, nothing is far

Those are moments of innocent guile

In the glow

We are suspended awhile

Those are moments when babies smile.

Those are moments when the heart is tender

When seascapes gleam in magnificient splendor

When the laughter of Heaven reverberates the Earth

And we are renewed in a new birth

In a timeless Eternity

In the angels’ fraternity

We romp and roll

The playground of our soul

In the twilight

We are suspended awhile

Those are moments when babies smile.

Those are moments we’re one with God

All is well, nothing is odd

In silent reflection

We feel our perfection

We are the source, we are the crucible

Nothing can hurt us, for we are invincible

There is no sin, there is no sinner

We can only win, we have felt the glimmer

In the bliss

We’re floating awhile

Those are moments when babies smile.

Kingdoms topple, lose their class

Civilizations crumble, ages pass

Turbulent tempests ravage the seas

Violent killings, despite our pleas

But dewdrops sparkle when children play

Tyrants cry, there’s nothing to slay

Fairies dance and globins sing

All are crowned, all are king

In the Garden

We frolic awhile

Those are moments when babies smile.

- Poems published in Michael's (1992) Dancing the Dream

To a Passer-By

The street about me roared with a deafening sound.
Tall, slender, in heavy mourning, majestic grief,
A woman passed, with a glittering hand
Raising, swinging the hem and flounces of her skirt;

Agile and graceful, her leg was like a statue’s.
Tense as in a delirium, I drank
From her eyes, pale sky where tempests germinate,
The sweetness that enthralls and the pleasure that kills.

A lightning flash…then night! Fleeting beauty
By whose glance I was suddenly reborn,
Will I see you no more before eternity?

Elsewhere, far, far from here! too late! never perhaps!
For I know not where you fled, you know not where I go,
O you whom I would have loved, O you who knew it!

We had him - Maya Angelou

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing, now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer wind.
Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace. Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon.
In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing. No clocks can tell time. No oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure.
Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone.
Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him.
He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.
Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that.
He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.
We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.
His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.
And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.
We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing. He gave us all he had been given.
Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square.
In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Birmingham, England
We are missing Michael.
But we do know we had him, and we are the world.