Your Old Men Will Dream Dreams

We are incurable night owls in my family. Still, even we can stay up TOO late sometimes and suffer sleepiness the next day. Today is that day for me. When deciding what to post today, all I could think of was that I felt tired, which reminded me of a poem I wrote recently: “Your Old Men Will Dream Dreams.”

The title is borrowed from a verse in Joel, which Peter quotes in his famous sermon on the day of Pentecost:

“In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17, NIV).

It’s always made sense to me that young men would see visions but old men would dream dreams because I figure older people nap a lot. Now that I’m over 50 (and my kids constantly remind me I’m old) it makes even more sense 😉😆

”Your Old Men Will Dream Dreams” is a sonnet on the lighter side, and will be in my upcoming book, A Song of Glass. I enjoy sonnets for their brevity. The sonnet’s small space is also structured by rhyme and meter; the creativity required to fit an idea into this form is fun (albeit, sometimes sadomasochistic, LOL).

Your Old Men Will Dream Dreams*

I’m kind of tired today, and in a lazy
kind of way turn a hazy kind of gaze
out the window at the tousled tree
whose green leaves wheeze in twilight’s flagging breeze.
Of all the things that I could do, only
staring into space until the lonely
moon rises seems a worthwhile way to while
away what’s left of today.  Sure, things may pile
up, but it’s not the end of the world, just
the day.  Then again, the world itself must
end for there to be re-creation and rest—
a sabbath after time.  I guess I’m just
getting a head start.  It’s not pathetic
to drowse and rest the eyes; it’s prophetic.



*Acts 2:17