Adam's Dream

The Imagination may be compared to Adam's dream: he awoke and found it truth. --Keats ~Robert Siegel He saw the garden spreading past the trees he'd been warned to avoid (yet keep a special eye on). He'd learned by scents, transported by the breeze, myriads of roses and how, by hand, the scion of one to graft on another--and what was edible: whole families of legumes, grasses, roots, melons, peaches, apples, pears. Incredible, the variety of tastes just from the fruits! But it wasn't enough. Even the breathing animals with friendly grunt or sigh, silken warm side, and large affectionate eye were not able to speak. When he named them, none replied: His words fell dead on the air--though he said them everywhere, walking or running to each place: to the mountain, which echoed back the sounds he made, or the still pool, returning his own gaze. But no one answered him until one night in a dream he woke and heard a soft voice speak his name.