Dream States Poem by Mary Champion

Sleep is a transport I take
to dreamland - a magical state,
where physical laws are suspended,
Reality fractured - upended.
And no rules apply.
In dreams I can fly.
I can walk in the air
for it's different there.
In dreams I am ageless.
In dreams I am weightless.

The people I meet
are like old friends. I greet
them although
I can't say I know
who they are.
But that is no bar
to our discourse
of course
for it seems
you never meet strangers in dreams.

And these known, unknown faces
I encounter in places
and buildings that I've never seen
locations where I've never been.
But it doesn't seem odd - not a bit.
In dreams you just don't question it.

I know things I've never been told.
In dreams I'm unusually bold.
In dreams I can drive,
but I never arrive
where I'm bound.
In dreams I have found
adventures, companions and treasure.
But now and again there's no pleasure.
In dreams I've had teeth falling out.
In dreams I have wandered about
stark naked, embarrassed - yet see
that nobody notices me.

Like the times when my legs cannot run
so I try hard to shout at someone,
then discover that I've been struck dumb
No wonder that nobody comes.
In dreams I am reckless at times,
why else would I undertake climbs
up sheer cliffs and walls,
risking terrible falls.
How can I do this at nights
while retaining my horror of heights?
that, awake, keeps me glued to the ground.
Still I've found
the proportion of nightmares is small -
overall.
************
REM is a gateway to being
more alive, all knowing, all seeing.
But whether I'm idling or active
the reason this state's so attractive
is simple enough to record -
in my dreams I have never been bored.