The following article, written in 1998, was inspired by William Wordsworth whose poems, for me, held more than a fragment of the view a child might have of all things; a quality that I feel underpinned his poetry. Of all the 'romantic' poets who tried to redress the realism of 'what is' with the romance of 'what should be' his was the most pure and innocent in my mind. His collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in putting together 'Lyrical Ballads' was an attempt to raise thoughts about the eventual result in the founding of America. They foresaw an age of materialism and capitalism that would come from a much bigger world wide arena of trade and commerce. A time when we all might turn away from our innate, divine spirit, to a time where we would be consumed with the negativity of greed and power.
With that in mind I remembered a time when I was a child who never for one second considered morality, mortality, or anything else that we become burdened with as adults and wrote 'Keepers of the Dream' as a reminder of a moment in my life when I felt childlike and consumed by the simplest of things, things that were captivating and beautiful.
KEEPERS OF THE DREAM
‘There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell’d in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.’
William Wordsworth
As an adult, fortunate enough to be born in the 20th Century, I am the beneficiary of many wonderful new toys. Computers, CD Players, Playstations, Cable TV, the Internet etc. etc. are all there for my amusement, and if it is true that boys never grow up then being born in an era of so many wonderful possibilities has given me every reason not to.
So why then do I now, in my endless voyage of discovery through life, find myself returning to a point in time when I had a kaleidoscope.
‘We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.’
T. S. Eliot
Just as a kaleidoscope turns, so does all life. We travel in a continuous arc, always to arrive full circle at some point – at the same point. I have come full circle to a point where I long to sit again, captivated by beauty; without question, fear or uncertainty. I long for time once again to become irrelevant, to disappear, so I can become one with eternity. I long for peace. A peace that technology alone cannot offer.
I long for my kaleidoscope.
Just as we, as individuals, come to this point, so do we as a collective race. Mankind must come full circle too.
I cannot remember when, how, or why I lost my kaleidoscope, just as mankind cannot remember when, how, or why it lost its way. As a race we keep records though, journals of history, which, on close examination, show we are at a point reminiscent of the late 18th Century.
‘The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!’
William Wordsworth
We have come full circle again to learn that there is a deeper dream within us all and for us all; a dream of eternal, creative, change, with possibilities of incomprehensible proportion.
A kaleidoscope of beauty and peace.
‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on.’
William Shakespeare
First though we have to discard the harsh realities that we have learnt from 20th Century ignorance and denial, to seek our individual spiritual peace. Then we will find the same as a race.
‘I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
live out the true meaning of its creed…….’
Martin Luther King
We are tiring of the shackles and emptiness of materialism. Our spirit cries out for recognition, to fill the empty void whose darkness consumes within us all. We have become spiritually empty, forgetting how to dream. It is this spirit though, that we cannot deny any longer, that will emerge and save us again.
‘And from the soul itself must there be sent
A sweet and potent voice, of its own birth,
Of all sweet sounds the life and element!’
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Life is the dream, the endless possibilities of imagination. From this imagination comes expression and creativity. From this creativity we shape our future dreams. The circle of life!
The reason of life!
‘The primary imagination I hold to be the living power
and prime agent of all human perception,
and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act
of creation in the infinite I am.’
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Each time we turn full circle we gain that little bit more that we need, in order to complete the final circle. One day we will realize that the circle of life is, but one in the great ‘circle of circles.’
It is a time for us to awake and realise – We are all ‘KEEPERS OF THE DREAM!’