Dream the Impossible Dream by Alvin Hollingsworth

 I lay down my pen, I dressed my page in black, red, orange, and yellow

Dreams, resilience, strength, and love

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

The lyrics to a song of Impossible Dreams

Tell me

If this man you see before you knows what it means to dream the impossible dream

Tell me

If this man’s dreams sprout from insanity or desire

A desire to be brave

A desire to be loved

A desire to be seen

For this man before you, I drew with my blood and sweat to create the colors black, red, orange, and yellow

I watched my pen create a downward spiral

Group these colors and desires together because they are the same

You’re part of the art

As the emotions of my Harlem home mix with the colors of my hands to create a part of me

The blood in my black body being spilled on this white paper like the blood of  black Jesus

Tell me

As Malcolm X and MLK prophesy to the crowd their dreams

Did their dreams ever feel impossible? Was it possible

They looked to me as an artist to draw people into the revolution?

I lay my pen down

As the thoughts swarm my head

Rubbing my eyes all I see is black, red, orange, and yellow

Hues of warm as jazz played softly in the background

The hues of warm reminded me of the warm sun

The warm hues I painted within the Don Quixote apartments as I tirelessly work

The hues everpresent in this one theme that has produced thousands of pieces of art

There’s just too much to say

Constant refining to get the perfect hue of

Black, red, orange, and yellow

Don Quixote

Do you ever become plagued with the idealism of my life?

To fight for the right / Without question or pause / To be willing to march into Hell / For a heavenly cause…

These are the lyrics to a song of impossible dreams

I sang them as I looked to the man you see before you

And awaited his answer

 

And He tells me:

I dream the impossible dream as I point to the beyond

With the sun beside me and my squire behind

Is this foolish fiction or am I striving to reach who I am meant to be

Who I desire to be

What I deserve

I see my blood and sweat create the world I read within romances

I desire this. This is my reality

Yet with my dying breath, I renounce it all

Was my dream in vain?

Did I waste my time looking for adventure... prophesying my dreams

Defeat after defeat

Yet my eyes can never quite leave the beyond

As the sky paints me with red, orange, and yellow

With black ink coursing my veins

I can’t help but ask myself

What dreams have you dreamed lately? Were they impossible?

 

I looked at the man before you and sighed…

I closed my eyes and grinned

Yes, Don Quixote, I have dreamed, and yes they were impossible

But do I regret it?

That my friend is something I cannot answer now

I picked up pen and began to dress my page in black, red, orange, and yellow