keep your head in the clouds Poem

I love daydreaming.
I’ve always daydreamed.
During car rides,
On the school bus home,
During math class,
Before falling asleep.

I daydream full lives for myself,
Impossible moments made possible,
I live out versions of myself
I am still too afraid to fully claim in real life.
It is a liberating experience for me,
To set aside time for myself to dream while still awake.

I know daydreaming has a negative connotation,
That somehow we are taught to dream out our future,
But still, stay fully present in order to arrive to such a future,
But how do you know what kind of future to aspire to
If you don’t dream it out, think it out, feel it out?

I believe that daydreaming is essential,
Essential to creativity,
Essential to justice work,
Essential to self-liberation.

Creativity is constantly being beaten out of us,
From our school curriculums,
To our standardized jobs,
Through the divestment in the arts,
Through the devaluing of creative jobs,
To the devaluing of daydreaming.

So to my daydreamers out there,
Keep your head in the clouds,
Keep dreaming big daydreams,
Keep creating alternate realities,
Keep defying what is possible,
For there is so much out there,
So many new ways of living,
Of experiencing, of loving,
Of breathing, of co-existing,
That is waiting to be dreamt up
And turned into reality.

xxoo

Jolie Brownell