Living for a Dream

To bear a thousand deaths for one uncertain heaven

To steal forbidden flaming fire from the gods above

To come down to hell to satisfy one desperate craving 

To pay the toll for fame and fortune, happiness and love 

To live a thousand lives competing with the best

Trying to raise our small human desires to the skies

Or stake our entire existence on attempts to test 

If we prefer the simplest truths to more elaborate lies 

The sea is calm and fair as I stand and think

The fog has cleared in an ink-gray mist 

Life’s hopes and fears to the ground now sink

All selfish worries having stormed and ceased

Stars reflected in the silver-studded sea 

Peace filling voids in sorrow-spangled hearts

I watch the waves and stand happy and free 

Free to spin daydreams on rugged ruby sands

Apart from gilded suns on northern shores  

Apart from wasted sufferings of men 

Or from life’s lessons depicted in the lores

Or brooding thoughts too native to my pen 

Far far away from dramas unrehearsed 

Away from petty fears and cheap emotions

Close to the pancake-sun and warm waves versed

In teaching seagull-wanderers their homeward motions

Ready to give my life for just one dream 

To abide in loneliness at the world’s wide shore

Finally ready not to fight the downward stream

Facing at last my spectral fears on the dusty floor