PFJChow.com : My Poetry Lodge

The Dreamer

The Watts Towers
The Watts Towers

The Watts Towers' Doorway
The Watts Towers' Doorway

The Watts Towers' mural
The Watts Towers' Mural

I had an old man as a neighbor,
He was always working at his shop;
Days and nights he labored,
And never seemed to stop.

He always tried to create something
Out of the litters he collected.
People called him dreamer and dumb things,
He paid them no mind and he said.


Refrain:
Who gave us "Mary has a little lamb"
On phonograph and electric lamp?
Who gave the world relativity,
"Old Man River" and gravity?
They were dreamers like Einstein,
Newton, Edison and Hammerstein.
Who wrote "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn"?
A steam-boat dreamer called Mark Twain.
Look at Mickey Mouse and Disneyland,
They are the creations of a dreamer’s hands.
When you give your dream a little room,
Hope will make your heart his home.


Out of the rubbles he built the Towers,
Right in the middle of the town;
People came and praised him,
And gathered all around.

I was one of those boys who brought him
All the things that others threw away;
What other gave up he gave to his dream,
The dreamer now had the final say.

Refrain: (as above)

Years have gone by and the Tower still stands,
For still other dreamers to admire;
An art of hope in the hopeless land,
An object to be desired.

Some people also call me a dreamer,
Sometimes my heart secretly agrees;
And now and then I still remember,
The words the dreamer passed to me.

Refrain: (as above)

© November 1975, Paul F.J. Chow

[ Author's note: When asked on one occasion why he did it, Sabato ("Sam" or "Simon") Rodia, an Italian immigrant construction worker said: "I had in mind to do something big and I did it.".

The Watts Towers, also known locally as "Nuestro Pueblo" in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California, is a collection of 17 interconnected structures and wall murals. Two of the towers reach the heights of over 99 feet and are visible from the 103rd Street-Kenneth Hahn Station of the Metro Rail LACMTA Blue Line.

It took him 33 years to complete, from 1921 to 1954. The whole structures were built from discarded materials found in his neighborhood, such as borken pottery shards, bottle glasses, bedframes, etc. It is now designated as the "Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park" and became a National Historic Landmark in 1990. ]