I wrote this song for my father’s fiftieth birthday celebration. A few years later, I customized the images for the incoming president Jimmy Carter and his family for Father’s Day. To my surprise, Rosalynn, the First Lady, wrote back to me, saying how much Jimmy loved the song and played it throughout the White House. When President Obama and his family moved into the White House, I happily did the same for them.

Here’s the backstory.

I was three hours away from home, sitting in a diner with my wife, when the lyrics suddenly came to me. Having no choice, I quickly wrote them down on a napkin. Magic then happened as a perfect melody line soon followed. Since I had no keyboard to help me remember the melody, the only way was to keep humming it. I told my wife, “Don’t talk to me or dare turn on the radio for the entire trip.” I must have hummed that tune more than a thousand times for three long hours. When arriving home, I ran to my beloved keyboard and locked in the tune.

Back at the studio, the very talented vocalist Bruce Scott recorded the melody in one take. When we played it back, I was taken by surprise when he asked me if I would like to add on any harmonies. Bruce then spontaneously overlaid three tracks in real time! The end result was precisely what was needed to complete this piece. The Universe has its ways.

“Dream Song” was composed in one of those rare moments, in twenty-three minutes, with my three-year-old daughter sitting on my lap at the piano.

As fate would have it, I randomly opened a children’s poetry book, and it revealed this wonderful poem by Walter de la Mare. I am not a mystical person by nature, but my muse demanded, “You must put music to this.”

I knew for sure, I was no longer at the conservatory.

The visual images used are a compilation of fractals by Roger Johnston and photographs by Michael Luckman.

© 2026 Dream Song · Music by Michael A. Luckman

This piece was a long labor of love, originally created while writing the libretto for the children’s musical Humpty Dumpty. I was never able to express a visual component for this piece until I shared my ideas with my collaborator Shael Riley. As if he had a direct link into my mind, he beautifully brought to life the visualizations that complemented the storyline so perfectly.

I originally composed this piece when I was a much younger man. Now that my perspective has been altered by age, I have come to value how deeply profound the lyrics are to me now. Thank you, Shael.

Michael A. Luckman