I Wish I'd Written This

Dreams, Always in Color

By Anne Schneider

She can’t see enough anymore to sew, 

but younger friends still can – 

they save her their remnants and bits of braid, 

yarns and rick-racks she puts aside in sacks 

all beneath her bed with winter dreams, 

dreams, always in color.

Early spring, she scatters the salvaged pieces 

like birdseed across her yard, 

frees fabric to the whim of wind – 

pleased by the confettied grass, 

she revisits dreams around her hearth, 

dreams, always in color.

Every year for Easter, grandchildren arrive,

resurrect her spirits, and look for colored eggs 

of course, but more above their heads – 

trees flutter, flicker with bright cradled nests 

and dreams of flight, 

dreams, always in color.


With Easter still fresh in our memories, this was a must! I requested it after spotting it on Anne's facebook page and falling in love with the tale it tells.

Anne Schneider is a Kerrville, Texas writer and author of Breath Found Along The Way, a book of poetry and face-cast mask art. She is an accomplished mask-maker; and she leads natural healing Reiki workshops and Tai Chi classes at her Ventana Al Cielo Studio. Anne’s poetry has been published in numerous anthologies, including the Texas Poetry Calendar and the Austin International Poetry Festival Anthology. She writes and edits for the Kerr County People magazine and is currently working on her memoir Seasons of Plenty, the Healing Journey of Maiden, Mother, Crone  — which I can't wait to read!


You can visit Anne at www.PoetsMask.com or  www.ReikiTexas.info

I was lucky enough to visit her in person during my 2006 poetry tour of Texas. It was a very special interlude. We devised a workshop using writing, mask-making and dance, and presented it together; and we held a poetry reading under the stars with a number of local poets.  As well, she and her friends and family gave me a wonderful time, showing me Kerrville and environs. In the course of all this, we naturally became dear friends for life, and I'm glad to have been one of the people who sparked her interest in learning Reiki.

At the first link above, you can read more of her beautifully sensual poetry and also buy her book.

Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).