To Be Blind...Yet Dream Poem by David Whalen

To be blind
And yet to dream…
At first glance a contradiction
It would seem to be

A wondrous relief
From unending dark…
At least to the sighted
It would seem to be

But alas…the blind
Dream only of darkness
And know not of light
It would seem to be

Their dreams consist
Of sounds and sensations
Feelings, emotions,
Yet completely light-free

The dreams of the blind
Unlike yours and mind
Are without colour, or depth
Without height or breadth

Yet they dream
…Beautiful dreams…
Of imagined flowers,
of Fairyland towers

Of the scent and the feel
Of the wind and the rain
Of the hot feel of lust…
And the cool onset of dusk

Yet they do indeed dream
And are happy it seems
In an imaginative land
…Of blind dreams…




{footnote}
People who are blind from birth usually dream in the sense of this poem, while people who
Suffer blindness early in life dream as we do (colours and all) , but the faces, places and things in
Their dreams are forever fixed in time. Things never change and faces never age, so their loved ones
Stay young forever! (unfortunately, so do their not-so-loved ones)