"dreamlands" poems
Like all other cities in the clouds
this one is often wet and always loud.
Its air heavy with the sweat of labour
and light with the soothing lunar caress.
Its bricks, the stuff of dreams,
raised by giants, manifested in concrete.
Its people the dreamers.
There shoulders drenched in hope
Walk with weeping umbrellas to the sky
in painful black soles...
...Past snow globe dreamlands
of nebular realms and rainbow twilights
Shielded in walls of nothingness thick
to keep the fantasies in and the phantoms out.
And she prances on the grey greasy pavement
blowing bubbles of soap that brave the rain.
Her chin - the sun.
Her breath - the monsoon winds.
Her curls - the streams in the woods.
Her forehead - the promised land to each raindrop.
And her soul - the bliss that lies in the space between worlds.
Jul 4, 2016
Jul 4, 2016 at 12:46 PM UTC
Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch
Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace
you climb, skittish kite ...
What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there
so that all that remains is to
fall?
Only a little longer the wind invests its sighs;
you stall
spread-eagled as the canvas snaps
and ***** its white rebellious wings,
and all
the houses watch with baffled eyes.
Originally published by Poetry Porch. Keywords/Tags: Icarus, flight, flying, hang-gliding, kite, glider, wind, canvas, South, southern, truck, unspooled
Note: The following poem unites Icarus with Tom O'Bedlam in a final, magical quest ...
Finally to Burn
(the Fall and Resurrection of Icarus)
by Michael R. Burch
I.
Athena takes me
sometimes by the hand
and we go levitating
through strange Dreamlands
where Apollo sleeps
in his dark forgetting
and Passion seems
like a wise bloodletting
and all I remember
—upon awaking—
is: to Love sometimes
is like forsaking
one’s Being—to glide
heroically beyond thought,
forsaking the here
for the There and the Not.
II.
O, finally to Burn,
gravity beyond escaping!
To plummet is Bliss
when the blisters breaking
rain down red scabs
on the earth’s mudpuddle...
Feathers and wax
and the watchers huddle...
Flocculent sheep,
O, and innocent lambs!
I will rock me to sleep
on the waves’ iambs.
III.
To Sleep, that is Bliss
in Love’s recursive Dream,
for the Night has Wings
pallid as moonbeams—
they will flit me to Life,
like a huge-eyed Phoenix
fluttering off
to quarry the Sphinx.
IV.
Riddlemethis,
riddlemethat,
Rynosseross,
throw out the Welcome Mat.
Quixotic, I seek Love
amid the tarnished
rusted-out steel
when to live is varnish.
To Dream—that’s the thing!
Aye, that Genie I’ll rub,
soak by the candle,
aflame in the tub.
V.
Riddlemethis,
riddlemethat,
Rynosseross,
throw out the Welcome Mat.
Somewhither, somewhither
aglitter and strange,
we must moult off all knowledge
or perish caged.
VI.
I am reconciled to Life
somewhere beyond thought—
I’ll Live in the There,
I’ll Dream of the Naught.
Methinks it no journey;
to tarry’s a waste,
so fatten the oxen;
make a nice baste.
I’m coming, Fool Tom,
we have Somewhere to Go,
though we injure noone,
ourselves wildaglow.
Apr 14, 2020
Apr 14, 2020 at 3:57 AM UTC
Tere liye pyaar ne pankh lagaye
Mera dil chahe panchhi ban ud jaaye
Tere liye mor ne pankh bikhraye
Saawan ki aas mein kitne rang dikhaye
Teri baaton ka sur hawaaon mein ghul jaaye
Saans se saans tak chhupi baatein chalti jaayein
Chaandni raaton mein tera khwaabon ka jahan
Tere ishq mein, har pal ek naya armaan hai
Tere liye yeh pyaar pankh lagaye
Door ambar mein panchhi ban ud jaaye
Tera ishq rahe sadaa be-andaaz
Har lamha agla pal sun-hare sajaaye
Teri aankhon mein hai ek saahil ka aalam
Har lehar mein chhupa ek naya manzar hai
Bheegi si khamoshi ke raag chal pade
Tere saath guzarta har lamha bemisaal hai
Baarish jugnu ka noor na mita de
Mor ka naach aandhi mein tham na jaaye
Tu bhool na jaaye, mera dil ghabraaye
Veeran na ** jaaye saaqi mere khwabon ka
Jab baarish thehri, ta-roon kamal khil jaaye
Doodh chandni mein rang bikhar jaaye
Jugnu phir se tere ehsas mein jhil-milaye
Aur mera pyaar phir pankh lagaye
Tere liye yeh pyaar pankh lagaye
Door ambar mein panchhi ban ud jaaye
Tera ishq rahe sadaa be-andaaz
Har lamha agla pal sun-hare sajaaye
Meri fitrat mein tu sadaa basa rahe......
----------------English Translation------------
For you, love has found its wings,
My heart longs to fly, a bird that sings.
For you, the peacock spreads its wings wide,
In the hope of rain, colors come alive.
Your voice melts into the breeze,
Whispers wander with such ease.
In moonlit skies, your dreamlands gleam,
In every breath, a brand new dream.
For you, this love takes flight on high,
A bird that soars in the endless sky.
May this love forever blaze and roam,
Each moment a dream in golden bloom.
In your eyes, a shoreline calls,
Each wave reveals new miracles.
Songs of silence softly play,
With you, each moment’s a rare ballet.
Let not the rain ***** fireflies' glow,
Let peacocks dance through winds that blow.
May you never forget my trembling heart,
Or leave my dreams to fall apart.
When the rains come to rest, pond-lotuses gleam,
Colors blossom in moon’s soft beam
Fireflies flicker in your tender grace,
And love again finds its winged embrace.
For you, this love takes flight on high,
A bird that soars in the endless sky.
May this love forever blaze and roam,
Each moment a dream in golden bloom.
In the fabric of my soul, you will stay,
A breath of my being, come what may...
Apr 26, 2025
Apr 26, 2025 at 5:07 PM UTC
rusty knees folded under a
quilt weaved by the calloused hands of
particles of grandmothers' grandmothers,
head heavy on a
down-breasted pillow,
rising and falling softly
in a bedroom den,
whispering relative semantics of
a testament revised
while outside, tornadoes uproot trees
and displace plywood houses
with charred pies frozen on the windowsill,
entombed from the harsh winter's frost
and incubation in false ovens;
i recall seasonal naps of
drifting and wakening
and colourful mosaics
painted across the dreamland sky,
drinking cups of melatonin-laced chamomile
steeped in an angel teapot that induced
psychosomatic apparitions in constant relay
from earhole to earhole and
assisted with pulling an endless rope out of my
mouth which had been tied to the pit of my ulcerated stomach,
my head twisting in a corkscrew spiral,
meeting a longing gaze
and twisting back again,
oh! my bottled neck!
you retell poems softly spoken loudly
with my kisses on your heavy eyelids,
before we drift through the sheer veil
into unified consciousness,
taking a glimpse at our crowning home in
an infinite land,
enveloped in time-honoured Love
bestowed upon us in
pure, Divine fate,
watching endless words of
'i love you', 'i love you'
trickle like sand though a
heavenly hour glass figure;
to wake, a chance to celebrate,
to die, a chance to find each other again.
Mar 10, 2014
Mar 10, 2014 at 10:27 PM UTC
.
In the dreamlands of sun,
He streams the invisible rivers
Of lit glories to come,
Careens, lording the beams,
Airs, above the ordinary
Grasses that dry in the gleams,
With eyes that wash over kills,
The forking fowl and mealy vole,
Hare in the runaway hills,
High above the fourth wall, stead-
Fast, stately in his dress,
To commencements of death,
Where eagle strikes with talon,
Crescent as day moon,
Sudden, silent to the cast fallen.
Apr 9, 2016
Apr 9, 2016 at 9:03 PM UTC
At night, breaths turn steady as thoughts run fast
through my head sticking out of the covers.
Hazy memories emerge from my past
of playgrounds, prom gowns and former lovers.
A final twitch; reality ceases.
My bed is gone. A sailboat takes its place,
somehow gliding through fuchsia glass pieces
underneath a moon made of a clock face.
I turn to see an old flame that burned out,
when suddenly fire rains from the skies.
I walk to the edge and jump with no doubt -
into the deep pink shards my body flies.
I jolt upright, back where my sleep started,
as details fade of dreamlands uncharted.
Jul 16, 2014
Jul 16, 2014 at 1:16 PM UTC
ornate key to souls lockbox
kept by the old man
who sweeps the scattered leaves and mends the bent stones
his leather skin makes a sandpaper sound
and is tattooed with sea charts and mythical creatures
he is wearing the ornate key on golden chain
as he gropes his way down to the
courtyard where she is watching the stars
she devours his footsteps with her mind
and the trail of dust he disturbed salts the meal
she drinks of his liquid thoughts
their hot wet deep waters
as he works head held low
on the marble steps with wrought iron
sweeping up the dusty words
left by the shuffling of a thousand year students
who studied the discomforts and glories of the pen
as the soft sounds of her labor echo
she crafts rowboats of pewter to sail upon the metal sea
she builds metal men from a tin foiled
armed with swords to reap the harvest
she devises monks out of steel
their eyes an assembly of gears
fill the world with the small metal sound
of her blue eye looking out upon wicked world
as dawn stretches an aching red upon the sky
she lay in the old mans arms
watching her armada sailing the metal sea
watching her army of tin foiled men
their metal gear eyes forever looking to the stars
their dull grey skin echo dawns light
like regret
they have always been here
her and the old man
by the shore of a metal sea
in a tower of stone
building dreamlands from the chaff of seeds
that drifts down like grey snow
from the world high above
life from the ashes
someday that life will stand in summer sunlight
dance in october's moonlight
someday
May 24, 2014
May 24, 2014 at 6:26 AM UTC
In the dreamlands of sun,
He streams the invisible rivers
Of lit glories to come,
Careens, lording the beams,
Airs, above the ordinary
Grasses that dry in the gleams,
With eyes that wash over kills,
The forking fowl and mealy vole,
Hare in the runaway hills,
High above the fourth wall, stead-
Fast, stately in his dress,
To commencements of death,
Where eagle strikes with talon,
Crescent as day moon,
Sudden, silent to the cast fallen.
Apr 24, 2015
Apr 24, 2015 at 4:25 PM UTC
Could I provide a stolen glance,
That would glisten off my heart,
At where I would see you in a trance,
At where my mind could fall apart.
-
You being a catalyst to the fire,
The arsonist behind my demise,
The smoke takes my thoughts ever higher,
And the flutter in my chest does rise.
-
I see you in dreamlands wandering solemn,
Betwixt a lake and a great etched stone,
You look of tales told to the fallen,
And I wonder why you are there alone.
-
Echoes of the marvelous melody,
Worth dying for so many times over,
Reverberate in the cavity,
That my chest does now dwell and cover.
-
There is nothing left of this place,
You've forgotten everything in me,
But for you my endless mind still does chase,
I wish for what could be.
-
I seek no complaint, rather I should say,
That everything may be as well as it lay
Ambiguous love and hopes in the day,
Will shatter against the stones of the bay.
Jul 14, 2013
Jul 14, 2013 at 4:06 PM UTC
open roads, you’ve grabbed these wrists again
under streetlights that weren’t even mine (to begin w/) now I'm
running toward spaced out dreamlands & my head can only
shake so much..
& this bomb you’re building in your own
fragile lungs has lead me to believe
that another day has passed, fused
itself into the open hands of
an autumn afternoon/afterglow
so now, here we are
waiting
watching
keep an eye out for me
I’ll be the one spinning my
own web of truths
life is nothing but (a) reel..
Oct 23, 2011
Oct 23, 2011 at 10:34 AM UTC
I never sleep at night
the dreamlands claim my mind
propel me head first into strange stories
at once familiar and unknown
sleep would be welcome
- a kind of forgetting
but it seems dreams are written down
and I must act them out.
Aug 19, 2024
Aug 19, 2024 at 1:36 PM UTC
I’ve run this river dry
You're as beautiful as the sky
Your opinions spew out like water from a fountain
I wish you could be here with me as I climb this mountain
From up and down these endless halls
Your dorkiness could fill up all of these walls
Loud and Obnoxious
Making the whole room nauseous
The sheen from your long black hair
Blocks out the sun, I guess its only fair
Because the sun surpasses your beauty, by a tad
But it doesn’t matter, because you already have a lad
A lad that treats you well
A lad thats shinier than a bell
You’ll end up like everyone else I liked
This mountain i’ve already hiked
You’ll just slip through my hands
Like all of my dreamlands
Its too late
All you are is just bait
Bait that is unreachable
Dec 10, 2014
Dec 10, 2014 at 12:01 PM UTC
Sunrise until sunset
Cooler lands warmed in the hours
As the rays mark the hours.
Each moment defines summer's calendar.
As the day ends and the moon marks the night.
Dreamlands and astral plains take our mind's on a journey
where magic, ficitional, and the impossable are within reach...
We are no longer a heavy mortal who has fallin asleep on the beach.
We are like Peter Pan who never grows old...
We can fly!
To distant areas and becoming involved in unordinary events
Never limited to the covers of a book or how we are taking in
as to how the story teller has told.
We are free in Never Never Land.
So, enjoy your flight and fly free!
Until the alarm clock and the sun mark the waking hours...
You may do as you like...Even posess super powers.
The cool air chills the body, however never the soul.
As it flies through these Dreamy Astral Plains
Until the sun warms the bady to wake.....
You are the untouchable in this land of Astral's Reality Break.
Jul 21, 2016
Jul 21, 2016 at 8:08 PM UTC
Awake too early once again
Afraid to read myself to sleep
Because of badness always hiding
In the bushes of my dreamlands.
Filthy restrooms, windows where there should be walls
People that don’t seem to like me
Things I need and cannot find
My life’s work an apology.
Tortured pets and wounded hopes
Mazes made of halls and stairwells
How fast I can’t run away
From dangers with their faces hidden.
Can I drive on narrow rails
And not fall to the canyon floor?
What happened to the coins I found-
All mine for the collecting.
Who is it I’m letting down
As I discover that I’m late
And all that should have been arranged
Is still locked in the closet.
Who are all the nameless faces
Everywhere not helping me
But mostly getting in the way
Of what I need to finish.
Wide awake before the dawn
I stumble from one nightmare
Hoping not to find another
When I go crash upon the sofa.
ljm
Nov 14, 2023
Nov 14, 2023 at 4:49 PM UTC
If you fall, in love with me
You would surly regret
In the storm of my state
You would drown and forget
I live near the city of grief
Dwelling with my own sorrows
Why should I dream of...
What I would regret tomorrow
Why should you be in distress
For my world is abandoned
Your lifes journey should be easy
Tho, I'd be a bit saddened
What am I? But a broken soul
There'll come many in your way
To take you in their dreamlands
So why do you ask me everyday,
......if I love you?
©sim
Aug 13, 2017
Aug 13, 2017 at 3:37 AM UTC
In the midst of a dream
as I lay ensconced in
cloistered, quiet log cabin shadows
raindrops one by one pelting
the wooden roof
and musky wet earth
Hardness of my army cot
only increased the deep sense
of loneliness and seclusion
pervading my soul
I thought of beloved Sathya Sai
and grasped onto scraps of bliss
falling into the pool of consciousness
From depths of my anguished being
I whispered, "I Love You"
And! like an echo seeking its one true Love
I heard the voice of precious Baba respond
across electric ethers and swampy
forest dreamlands:
"I LOVE YOU!"
Oct 19, 2016
Oct 19, 2016 at 5:21 PM UTC
I emerged from the thicket with leaves in my hands.
They were the colour of dead grass and lions
And crumbled softly.
There was the view from the dreamlands
That I had sown in my mind’s eye,
Threading dull needles.
The cycles of breathing and focus breezed past -
The weightlessness didn’t hurry me
after each eternal second.
The safe place was untouched by the dreary forecast
Just as I had left it. The untidy nest
Of hushed thoughts
Invited my aching self into the comforts of a home
I could never find elsewhere –
Out there.
The best thing was the bed – clouds of foam
Framed by shadow and paced by birdsong.
The décor was unclear
But somewhere near, I heard the spell of a flute
Reeling me from the promise of sleep,
Matching my sigh,
And soon enough, you had left your boots
And your silhouette by the door,
Keeping away the storm.
It is only seconds after you leave that I hear the bells ring
Calling me back to the duff path,
Through the undergrowth.
Another day of feeling the rot of mundane living
As I now settle in the soil and wait for the leaves
To grow.
Apr 19, 2021
Apr 19, 2021 at 7:17 AM UTC
I want to get over you
And let you go. But it's funny
Even though you are already gone
I am still holding onto
Every tiny fibers of your being and threads
Of your lost and none existent love.
I know for a fact that
You have gone long ago like
During my youth years
Yet I am still here in the dreamlands
Somehow by any design, hoping the impossible
One day we can find each other again.
This is really annoying and agonizing, I mean
Being delusional and arguing with reality.
My mind is playing games with my heart.
At this point, I just don't know
What to do anymore.
Please help!
Jun 20, 2017
Jun 20, 2017 at 8:38 PM UTC