Of Dreams Poem by John Carter Brown

I now look once again to sleep
And all attendant dreams;
Where all is false and formless
Where naught is what it seems;

Where flit our alter-egos,
And anarchy conspires
To overthrow our sanity,
Our hopes and our desires.

Where terrors dovetail side by side
With bliss ecstatic dreams;
The one to kill by fright, on sight,
The other, where love teems.

These visions, fast and fleeting,
Beyond scope, or control,
Not fixed in flesh and blood or bone,
Are tethered to the soul.

A truth, a lie, an alias,
A spirit-fuelled fire,
Resurrected night by night
To pirouette and gyre.

Meaningless inventions
No words can full explain,
That take control of reason
In trying to contain
Just what it is we mortals
Could ever hope to know
About that inner sanctum,
That other-worldly show.

So now I leave you, reader-friend
To sleep and dream anew,
To enter the illusion
And see what will ensue;
To fashion out a subterfuge
My mind with which to trick
The terror or the ecstacy,
But know not which to pick

(Written May 2013)