Taking a moment to reflect on our lives can sometimes be a source of anxiety,  especially when considering our existence in finite terms.  The famous American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe contemplates the slippage of time, and his inability to grab hold of the fleeting moments of life.  Likened to a dream, he questions what is real and what is not.

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Image Credit
Feature: hello_its_dani at flickr, Creative Commons