The (Musical) Vagabond

This poem hails from a season when I was rediscovering myself as a musician, and was finding encouragement in that journey at various unexpected points along the road.

I’m a vagabond out dancing,

I find dreams and store them in a sack

And in the night I lift them out

To polish them, but put them back.

And I wander near the fringe

And stare at dreams I wish were mine

But I crave that far, horizon ridge –

So I must leave the city line.

My fingers find a new-born wish

That grows and then envelopes me

And in the sack I find a dream

That matches what the wish could be.

Vagabond, dance down the road

And pluck the dreams you wish to own

And weave a better pattern here,

Weave with vigor and without fear.

And when the city limits crush

And steal, impoverish, and limit you,

Embrace the road, embrace the wind,

Run hard ’til you are new.