WAKING MNEMOSYNE

WAKING MNEMOSYNE

As you rise up in sleep,
dreams and memory merge
like dove-tailed hands.

In sleep's imperfect flight,
the sum of our lives
enters a new waking.

Seeking night vision
a memory slowly approaches
in the shape of wings.
The mantle of stars drops
over your death—

lifts away from it,
& of this, you remember
how like doves,
her hands.

10/13/1982  (81?)
rev. 1988
Forestville

1989 Women's Voices

Mnemosyme, a Titan goddess of memory, mother of the muses by Zeus
2. roughly translated, it means speak-memory

ASCII file was half gone. hard copy rools.
Such a radical shift from the first draft, almost a completely different poem, so I've posted both.  see MNEMOSYNE AUBADE

David Bromige rewrote the above version:

It comes down to greet you

and as you rise up, dreams and memory

merging in sleep

like a pair of dove-tailed hands

so the sum of our lives

enters a new waking

as the dream begins,

seeking like night vision

a remembering.

You can see them slowly

approaching in the shape

of doved fingertips

the mantle of stars drops

over your death

lifts away from your death.