Galaxy of Broken Dreams

Galaxy of Broken Dreams

One night, I gazed upon a broken cosmos,
Where disorder and confusion reigned supreme;
And with stubborn will and pure intent, I believed
All could be righted by me.

The next day, I gazed upon an ordered world,
Where all was right and I was wrong;
A shattered lens shatters all, I knew
All to be righted was me.

— Dean Bowman

About this Work

Author's Note: This explores our human tendency toward grandiosity—the delusion that we can fix what we perceive as broken in the world, when often the distortion lies in our own perception.

Inspiration: This piece emerged from a collision between idealism and humility. I had been consumed with the notion that I could impose order on chaos, until I recognized that my lens was cracked. The poem captures that pivotal moment when the reformer's outward gaze turns inward, when the urge to fix the world becomes the harder work of examining oneself. It marked my first real understanding that any meaningful clarity must begin with acknowledging our own fractured vision.

Process: Originally three stanzas, I removed the final one after recognizing it was merely explaining what the poem had already accomplished. The work is stronger without that explanatory weight—readers deserve the space to arrive at their own understanding.

Publication Details

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