This Festival of Dreams

By D.L. Lang

This Festival of Dreams is D.L. Lang's 13th poetry book, containing 78 new poems, primarily written between July 2019 and April 2020.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.L. Lang
• Release date: Oct 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005900281

D.L. Lang

D.L. Lang is the author of 13 poetry books, most recently This Festival of Dreams. She served as poet laureate of Vallejo, California from 2017 to 2019, performing hundreds of times across California at county fairs, literary events, and political demonstrations. She has been published in dozens of anthologies worldwide. Her poems have been transformed into songs, Jewish liturgy, and used to advocate for peace and justice. She can be found online at poetryebook.com

Book preview

Foreword

This volume of poetry was written between July 2019 and April 2020 with the exception of My La Familia Contributions from 2016. The title This Festival of Dreams was inspired by having a dream that I lived happily on a commune only to wake up to a world where social distancing was happening and festivals were being cancelled.

2020, thus far, has been a stark contrast to the past five years, during which I’d performed my poetry 250 times to live audiences.

My term as poet laureate was extended until December 2019. During these final few months I had the honor serving as a judge of the Vallejo Poetry Slam and the 2019 Solano County Library teen writing contest. I joined the Poets Laureate on Social Justice tour between August and December 2019, performing at Revolution Books and Pegasus Books in Berkeley, Bird & Beckett in San Francisco, Book Passage in Corte Madera, Napa Bookmine, Benicia Public Library, and at the JFK Library in Vallejo.

I was scheduled to do two more appearances in Oakland and San Francisco, but my back was in severe pain, so I dropped out being unable to continue with such a rigorous schedule.

I wrote Labor Makes the World Go Round for the Georgia Galleria Ode to Labor event on September 13th, 2019 inspired by the painting Finally Over by Angela Simms.

I attended a conference in Millbrae with fellow poets laureate on September 21st, 2019. We were prompted by Tao Te Ching, 17, which speaks of leadership being unseen. It is out of that that I wrote Roar. It also was my own personal experience, being one who rarely spoke due to a hard childhood, transforming into a public speaker, and a leader who prefers to lead by example, not by force.

My successor as Vallejo’s Poet Laureate, Jeremy Snyder, was named on December 20th, 2019. The poems Poem for Jeremy and Timelessness is Genius were written for him. By this time I had performed 141 times as Vallejo’s Poet Laureate. At the proclamation ceremony at city hall on January 28th, 2020 I read Vallejo Together.

A group of friends and colleagues threw me a party on January 12th, 2020. Nina Serrano, Johanna Ely, and Tom Stanton all wrote a poem about me and performed it. Erin Bakke, Laura Mullet, Jeremy Snyder, and Jeff Kingman also said some kind words.

My gratitude to them for the joyous celebration and their kindness and support throughout my tenure. I was given a plaque stating Vallejo Poet Laureate 2017-2019 with love and appreciation, a beautiful sculpture by Erin Bakke of Enheduanna, flowers, a cake, and a crown.

I performed a set of poems and gave an abbreviated speech:

When I started writing poetry 25 years ago I never imagined my private writings would make me a public figure, let alone a poet laureate. Shortly after I had my debut performance in 2014, I received two unbelievable fortune cookies. They said, You will be a successful entertainer. and The world will soon be ready to receive your talents. Thank you all for making these words ring true. 

I wouldn’t be here without all of you. I did not get here alone. You’re all standing here beside me. That camaraderie is one thing I enjoyed the most over the past two and a half years. To every fellow artist