"Dreams in a Box" (1987)

Demo Song

Background Information

“Dreams in a Box” is a title developed by Bono as they were working on Rattle and Hum.

“Dreams in a Box” isn’t a traditional song, but rather a poem that Bono wrote, that has been displayed at the Chicago Peace Museum. The book “U2: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song” by Niall Stokes identifies the poem as one that has been written in 1987. And the poem is included in “Outside Is America: U2 in the U.S.” by Carter Alan.

The Chicago Peace Museum is dreams in a box
Some come true, some to be realized
Yet…we know that peace is a living thing
That cannot be put in a place, contained
That it is not the absence of war
That it does not bow down to Marx or Lenin, Reagan or Thatcher
That it is not infected by hypodermic needles
And yet it must infect us with a cure, contagious.

Peace will not prosper while the poor are controlled in ghettos
Cornered by color or greed
From Watts to Harlem, Belfast to Beirut
We must find new solutions to new problems.

The Chicago Peace Museum is a building
put up and run by men and women who believe
that peace does not exist by itself
that it is/will be brought into being by people
That is must be taught in classrooms as well as churches
As street lever as well as the negotiating table
By businessmen as well as artists.

I am a word writer…but it is actions
man-made and concrete
that we need…

We see love torn down
Begin the rebuilding.

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