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“Dreams Are the Royal Road to the Unconscious”

By Paul Goodman 1911–1972 Paul Goodman

“Dreams Are the Royal Road to the Unconscious”
—Freud

The King’s Highway to the Dare-Not-Know

—but I beg my rides and oh I know

these boring roads where hundreds and hundreds

of cars fade by in hundred-hundreds

of flashing windows too bright too fast

to see my face. I am steadfast

long hours o’ the morning, I am so sad.

An old-time trap, an ancient sad

horse and his farmer stop by the way,

they’ll take me one mile on my way

—out of my way—is this the Way?

I used to think I used to be happy,

but is it possible to be happy?

What is it like?—like Plato oh

we’ll copy it at large and oh

plan a city where all the distances

(where? where?) are walking distances.

June 1947

Source: Poetry (October 2012).

Biography

During the wave of radicalism which swept college campuses in the 1960s, students who believed they could trust no one over thirty made an exception for Paul Goodman. Journalists have noted that Goodman was the only writer consistently quoted by the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley. According to George Steiner, "Goodman's is about the only American voice that young English pacifists and nuclear disarmers find convincing." . . .

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