Hold Fast Your Dreams ~ A Poem by Louise Driscoll

Finding Sanctuary: Why Holding Fast to Your Dreams is Vital Today

Hold Fast Your Dreams

Louise Driscoll

Hold fast your dreams!
Within your heart
Keep one still, secret spot
Where dreams may go,
And, sheltered so,
May thrive and grow
Where doubt and fear are not.
O keep a place apart,
Within your heart,
For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.
Let wish and magic work at will in you.
Be sometimes blind to sorrow. Make believe!
Forget the calm that lies
In disillusioned eyes.
Though we all know that we must die,
Yes you and I
May walk like gods and be
Even now at home in immortality.

We see so many ugly things—
Deceits and wrongs and quarrelings;
We know, alast we know
How quickly fade
The color in the west,
The bloom upon the flower,
The bloom upon the breast
And youth’s blind hour.
Yet keep within your heart
A place apart
Where little dreams may go,
May thrive and grow.
Hold fast—hold fast your dreams!

Source

The Sanctuary Within: Reclaiming Our Dreams

In a world defined by the relentless “scroll” and the harsh glare of “doomscrolling,” Louise Driscoll’s Hold Fast Your Dreams serves as a vital manifesto for the soul. The poem isn’t just a sweet sentiment; it is a strategic defense of the human spirit. Driscoll urges us to cultivate a “place apart”—a mental sanctuary where the cynicism of contemporary society cannot penetrate.

Today, we are bombarded by “deceits and wrongs,” making it easy to succumb to the “disillusioned eyes” that Driscoll warns against. To “walk like gods” in the 21st century means refusing to let digital fatigue or global anxieties extinguish our capacity for “wish and magic.” By making believe and being “sometimes blind to sorrow,” we aren’t ignoring reality; we are protecting the creative spark that allows us to improve it. In an age of fleeting trends, the “bloom upon the flower” may fade, but the internal dream remains .

As you read this poem, ask yourself:

Is the “secret spot” in your heart currently filled with the world’s noise, or have you left enough room for your smallest, most magical dreams to grow?