Dancing the Dream

DANCING THE DREAM

Dancing the Dream is a 1992 book of poems and reflections by American superstar entertainer and recording artist Michael Jackson. His second book, it followed his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk. Dancing the Dream was dedicated to both his mother, Katherine, and to Deepak Chopra. Its foreword was written by Jackson's friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor. The book also contains an assortment of around 100 photographs of Jackson.

Dancing the Dream was published by Doubleday, on June 18, 1992. Though not being a significant commercial success, the book is rather a present from Jackson to his fans. The book was reissued by British publisher Transworld in July 2009 following Jackson's death the previous month.

Jackson dedicated Dancing the Dream "with love" to his mother Katherine, and has an introduction written by his longtime friend Elizabeth Taylor.

The volume consists of 46 pieces of poetry and essays. The subjects Jackson writes about are primarily children, animals and the environment. For example, one specific poem titled Look Again, Baby Seal promotes environmentalism as Jackson imagines anthropomorphic seals who brood about the fate of being killed by hunters. Another poem (So the Elephants March) presents elephants that refuse to be killed in order for ivory pieces to be made from their tusks. A third piece (Mother Earth) describes a struggle to cope with the discovery of an oil-covered seagull feather. To stress the theme of environmentalism and the necessity for action, Jackson writes in the essay: "We've been treating Mother Earth the way some people treat a rental apartment. Just trash it and move on."

Jackson also writes about the degree to which the 1990 death of AIDS sufferer Ryan White affected him in a poem titled after the youth, and as he presents in the poem, Jackson believes the teenage boy suffered through general ignorance of the disease.The poem Mother was written for his mother Katherine, whom Jackson loved deeply. In one stanza Jackson writes "No matter where I go from here/You're in my heart, mother dear".The poem had previously been published by his mother in her 1990 autobiography My Family, and was not the only material in Dancing the Dream to have appeared elsewhere. The poems Dancing the Dream (titled as The Dance) andPlanet Earth were included in the sleeve notes for Jackson's 1991 Dangerous album (and in its 2001 special edition re-release). Furthermore, the lyrics to the songs "Will You Be There" and "Heal the World"—also from the 1991 album—were included in Dancing the Dream.A spoken version of the poem "Planet Earth" was featured on the posthumous album This Is It.

Dancing the Dream includes approximately 100 photographs. Although the volume was promoted to include previously unreleased photographs of Jackson, some of the photographs had been previously published, such as those that were published in the 1985 Jackson calendar, and others that had been published in magazines such as Ebony and People. Furthermore, the volume included photographs converted from stills of Jackson's music videos "Black or White" (1991) and "Remember the Time" (1992), in addition to images of his 1991 performance at MTV's tenth anniversary celebration. Jackson commissioned artwork for Dancing the Dream from Nate Giorgio and David Nordahl, whom Jackson met in the 1980s and subsequently developed a professional relationship.

Dancing the Dream
Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I'm dancing, I've felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I've felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy.
I keep on dancing and dancing... and dancing, until there is only... the dance.

I Searched For My Star
When I was little, I used to lie on my back in the grass at night. I began to tell one star from another and wished that one of them could be mine, like an imaginary friend.
First I picked the Pole Star, because it is the easiest for a child to find, once you know that the Big Dipper is about to catch it. But I wanted my star to be a moving star, and not such a constant one. Besides, the sailors at sea would be lost without the Pole Star to guide them.
Next I picked out two special stars in the heart of the Swan. All the other stars looked white - but these were bright blue and gold. They reminded me of twin jewels, but before I could choose, I stopped. They belonged to each other, and it wouldn't be fair to take just one.
Orion's belt caught my eye for a moment, but I'm not a hunter. I had better leave the Dog Star alone, too, with its nose pressed to the celestial trail and its tail thumping the sky.
Last of all I turned to my favorites, the Seven Sisters. To me they were like elegant ladies getting ready for a ball, wrapped in a gossamer blue cloud. But who has the heart to tear seven sisters apart?
My game taught me a lot about the night sky, but I was growing up. The whole idea of having my own star faded, and it was hard to remember if I had ever chosen one in the end. People began to tell me that the word "star" meant something quite different. I half believed them, then one night I was tossing in bed, hurt and worried. My heart felt heavy with troubles. Stumbling to my feet, I looked out the window. Thick clouds masked the midnight sky. No stars!
I trembled to think of a world without stars. No guide for the sailor to trust at sea, no jewels to dazzle our sense of beauty, no hunter pointing to the next horizon, no lovely ladies trailing perfume to heaven's ballroom. But all around the globe, the air is so dirty and the lights from the cities are so bright that for some people few stars can be seen anymore. A generation of children may grow up seeing a blank sky and asking, "Did there used to be stars there?"
Let's give them back the sky and let's do it now - before it's too late. I'm going to search for my star until I find it. It's hidden in the drawer of innocence, wrapped in a scarf of wonder. I'll need a map to tell me which hole it should fill, and that will be a small one. But there are nearly five billion of us on earth, and we all need the sky. Find your star and throw it up to heaven. You still have it, don't you?

Innocence 
 

It's easy to mistake being innocent for being simpleminded or naive. We all want to seem sophisticated; we all want to seem street-smart. To be innocent is to be 'out of it'.
Yet there is a deep truth in innocence. A baby looks in his mother's eyes, and all he sees is love. As innocence fades away, more complicated things take its place. We think we need to outwit others and scheme to get what we want. We begin to spend a lot of energy protecting ourselves. Then life turns into a struggle. People have no choice but to be street-smart. How else can they survive?
When you get right down to it, survival means seeing things the way they really are and responding. It means being open. And that's what innocence is. It's simple and trusting like a child, not judgmental and committed to one narrow point of view. If you are locked into a pattern of thinking and responding, your creativity gets blocked. You miss the freshness and magic of the moment. Learn to be innocent again, and that freshness never fades.

TWO BIRDS

Its hard to tell them what I feel for you. They havent ever met you, and no one has your picture. So how can they ever understand your mystery? Lets give them a clue:

Two birds sit in a tree. One eats cherries, while the other looks on. Two birds fly through the air. Ones song drops like crystal from the sky while the other keeps silent. Two birds wheel in the sun. One catches the light on its silver feathers, while the other spreads wings of invisibility.

Its easy to guess which bird I am, but theyll ever find you. Unless....

Unless they already know a love that never interferes, that watches from beyond, that breathes free in the invisible air. Sweet bird, my soul, your silence is so precious. How long will it be before the world hears your song in mine?

Oh, that is a day I hunger for!