Time to add a bit of whimsy to the end of the week with ‘Big Dreams’.
We discover our first dreams in the magic of children’s literature: the poetry of great writers, and the illustrations of great artists. The Friday Poem this week encourages us to revisit those dreams through the words of April Halprin Wayland.
“For four and a half years I worked in the marketing department of Pacific Bell, which became AT&T. I knew that world was not for me. To keep my sanity, I took a class at UCLA Extension called Writing for Children, taught by Terry Dunnahoo. Terry’s class changed my life. It was as if I had fallen madly, deeply in love. When I walked to lunch with my corporate buddies, the men at construction sites whistled at me. They hadn’t whistled at me before I was in Terry’s class. Something huge had shifted in me; I was electric. I knew I had to take the leap. In one of my last meetings at AT&T, I pretended to take notes, but was actually writing a poem about a child who runs away to live with rabbits and slowly turns into one. I don’t know if I was writing about me, turning into a corporate bunny…or if I was writing about my desperate need to run away from the corporate life.”
Big Dreams
The scruffy house cat
aches to fly—
she dreams all day of
wings and sky!
So tonight
she climbs the ladder,
mounts a platform,
nothing matters
except to catch
a thin trapeze
then hold on tight
with grace and ease.
She swings herself
by both front paws
then somesaults
to wild applause
of kitchen mice,
who, though dizzy,
encourage Cat,
to keep her busy.
workthoughts 