Glorious dreams I've dreamt, dreams of a sky
Phillip A. Ellis
Glorious dreams I’ve dreamt, dreams of a sky
peopled with gods, spirits, peopled with vast,
mighty monsters soaring high, from a past no mundane eyes with mundane crystals scry, glorious dreams I’ve dreamt, while earthbound I lie
bound by gravity, bound to earth, past
glorious flight, high, beautiful on vast pinions that bear me, raise me, lift me high.
Earthbound I lie, fallen, pinioned to earth,
creature of dust am I, frail, bound to fall, with little hope for flight, little worth beyond these lines I lay upon this page.
Earthbound I lie, hearing the phoenix call beyond my frame of dust and bone-bound cage.
1.
Glorious dreams I’ve dreamt, dreams of a sky
blue, marked with white and rising as do dreams
marked with phoenix calls and eagles’ screams, glorious dreams I’ve dreamt, trying to fly.
Come, gods, on ethereal wings I try
to rise, joining eagle and phoenix, beams
of blessed sunlight shed upon me, schemes of wingclipped worries left behind to die.
Glorious gods, I fly – aloft to soar
through cloudscapes weird, unfearing mortal fools, through fields of light, forests of mist that pour over me, around, liquid as life, lust.
Glorious gods, I fly – heeding no mewls; glorious gods, I fly – though bound to dust.
2.
Peopled with gods, spirits, peopled with vast,
ethereal forces, seek the skies, know
we fly in dreams alone, dream we can flow like winds or water. We dream, flowing fast through cloudscapes shaped by a breeze, dream our task
is great, glorious, pure as is love or snow,
is great, grand, greater than mountains below, we dream, hoping our fears have fled and passed.
I fear to fall forever. I dream, feel
my wings and pinions strain, champing to soar forever far across the skies, kneel
not to fears of falling. Come, perfect skies,
bring forth your portents, signs, prodigies, for in flesh, in spirit, I fly, soar to rise.
3.
Mighty monsters soaring high, from a past
rumoured in visions, come, soar with me, fly
high through beautiful, vast, breathtaking skies, come, unto a world where beauty will last forever supreme. Prodigies born, classed
among those soaring forever far, high,
come, join me this day with never a sigh, let lessers walk or crawl, remain downcast.
Prodigious visions round me soar and climb
like pegasi over fields of clouds, air, or phoenix bright, or drakes of mythic clime, prodigious visions come, around me rise,
bear me aloft, to lofty climes and rare, unto beautiful, blue, unencumbered skies.
4.
No mundane eyes with mundane crystals scry
the skies I rise to. Mundane visions share
their petty hopes and dreams, their vapid fare among the lesser mortals longing to fly never too far or fast, never too high.
Mundane dreamers never really dare
to seek among the skies for visions rare, preferring wines too sweet than crisp and dry.
I rise and seek immortal sights the few
prefer above the scenes the many adore, I rise and fly, though mortal, seek to view immortal realms of joy. Although I’m dust,
I rise and fly, through wondrous dreams I soar though frail in flesh, subject to rot and rust.
5.
Glorious dreams I’ve dreamt, while earthbound I lie,
dreams untrammelled and free, of soaring flight
far from the fall from day, into a night where nightmares breed and breathe. Where nightmares lie as bloated beasts unnamed, I’ll fear not to die
downed, pinioned by gravity, robbed of flight
but gather strength, remember, such were the sights I saw when soaring far, rising high.
So strange the beasts we be. A season soars
our heart released, in visions rare and grand, then falls, to lie. It lies, pinned to the floor when once, in flying, spurned it mundane dusts,
and now, in lying, lies in grits and sands, creature of mundane habits, needs and lusts.
6.
Bound by gravity, bound to earth, past
the point of return, I soar, past all bounds
I’d dreamt of passing, far from earthbound sands and mundane dreams. I have soared, soared at last, I fear I’ll fall too soon, bound to be cast
broken upon the earth, broken and bound,
cast, unto destruction, onto the ground, nevermore to soar, fly on pinions vast.
I have dreamt this day. I’ve dreamt for years, longed
to soar forever. Glorious gods, come, change me, make me, shape me, mark me with your song!
Glorious gods, I fly! – unto the sky
I rise. Glorious gods, strike me dumb, glorious gods I fly! – in dreams to hie.
7.
Glorious flight, high, beautiful on vast
pinions, unto marvellous skies I come,
unto heights, peaks, I come. And, in the sun above, I see at last what dreams I cast aside, in order to soar, dreams I’d passed
aside. Within the sun I see, dumb,
the dreams I spurned, turned aside till numb and weary, looked I unto the sun, vast
and molten, golden, far from futile hopes,
the heights achieved, no more to rise. Alone, before I fall, upon the earth to grope, I know so soon I fall. I know I’ll lie
with shattered flesh and dreams, with rue alone in dreams to expand, far beyond my size.
8.
Pinions that bear me, raise me, lift me high.
pinions of dreams, well have you served me, well
lifted me thus high, far from dirt and dell.
Pinions that beat, sweeping through clouds and sky, pinions unearthly, lifting this frame, defy
a moment, hover far above the well
of gravity, stay, fight against the fell forces dragging down, stay and defy.
Stay a moment, pinions, a point alone
in glory exultant, stay, hold my frame until I feel the fall begin. As bone
must fall, remember you lift my flesh, lust
to soar assuaged, you lift a form, a name or station below, a man of blood and dust.
9.
Earthbound I lie, fallen, pinioned to earth,
after I flew, far from dust and mire,
well I remember soaring, high, to aspire unto a sun no blood can reach, whose worth is greater than any gold. Mortal birth
may dream, mortal birth may fly, but higher
than any dream it lies, true light and fire, so I fell, in falling far, fell and worse.
Slowly I fell at first, crying aloud
that I flew at last calling upon
my pinions to lift, higher, higher, loud lest they falter. Mortal I fell, I deem,
immortal a moment, famed in verse, song.
Mortal, born to die, immortal I dream.
10.
Creature of dust am I, frail, bound to fall,
and far I fell, from flying high and deep
over both mountains, oceans vast as sleep itself. Far I flew, further than could call to dust alone, flesh alone, could enthral
the sun that swam on high, the light to leap
unto. Far I flew where before I’d creep, dust that’s bound to dust, forevermore small.
More than dust on dust am I, more than mote
suddenly lifted high to float, and more than futile dreamer falling far, remote from hope, that false beguilement, fallow art.
More than merely flesh am I – I’m born to soar! -- more than merely dust am I, flesh and heart.
11.
With little hope for flight, little worth
since my fall, pinioned by gravity, bound
to earth by a frame of wings, bound and downed by pinions vast, with little hope, inearth me, leave me to rot,, lie forgotten, earth
over me a burden, whole, hale and sound
as any graveyard soil, leave me to flounder subject to gods’ malign, malignant mirth.
Laugh, eagle, I am your jest. Though dust I fade,
home and hearth of dreams am I, though mock you shrill.
Laugh, angel, laugh, demon, in dust I’m laid, home and hearth of dust am I, failing my dream.
Laugh, phoenix, laugh, with your wits and your will, home and hearth of dreams am I, though ash I seem.
12.
Beyond these lines I lay upon this page.
prodigious visions let me falter, fall,
left me here to lie, left to walk or crawl when formerly I flew, soared aloft, mage of dust untouched by petty hopes or rage,
petty dreams or whims. Formerly, no squall,
no fancied threat or fear of fall or stall, would break me, make me falter, break my gage
to rise. So rise, dreams, rise and be as light
shining forever bright. Rise and be fair though bound to gravity, earth, I crawl. Fight, dreams, as I once fought to fly, find delight
in treading far above me, treading air.
Rise, dreams, within me, rise and be as light.
13.
Earthbound I lie, hearing the phoenix call
over the mountains above, mocking. Come,
phoenix, fall as I fell, wingbound and dumb unto the earth, come. Prodigies may fall, portents may falter, signs may ever pall
before the force of gravity. Come, sung
of bird, fall and flash in flames, be as numb as dreamers cast and bound, simply become
as a broken frame, fallen angel in dust,
as my heart, broken, weary, pierced by toil, as a sword that’s rent, snapped, sundered by rust, as a weed encumbered track, spent bypath,
as a man that flew, fallen unto soil, as my murmuring heart, bright as sparks from hearth.
14.
Beyond my frame of dust and bone-bound cage.
my dreams escape and fly where once I flew
in flesh. In dreams I fly, O gods, and true as any phoenix, freed from binding cage, I soar aloft above the earthen stage,
unto the skies, beautiful, holy, blue,
I fly! In dreams I hie, in dreams to view sights once seen in mortal climes and age.
I fell to soar and fly. Come, O my heart,
know you’re alive once more. Come, be as fire or sparks, leaping ever upwards from your hearth, come, dreams, be as delight, sing as does light,
cast aside the phoenix, outpace its pyre or poem-flinging tongue. Rise, be bright – be bright!
Envoi.
Glorious gods, I fly – though bound to dust
in flesh, in spirit, I fly, soar to rise
unto beautiful, blue, unencumbered skies.
Though frail in flesh, subject to rot and rust, creature of mundane habits, needs and lusts,
glorious gods I fly! – in dreams to hie,
in dreams to expand, far beyond my size or station below, a man of blood and dust.
Mortal, born to die, immortal I dream,
more than merely dust am I, flesh and heart, home and hearth of dreams am I, though ash I seem.
Rise, dreams, within me, rise and be as light,
as my murmuring heart, bright as sparks from hearth or poem-flinging tongue. Rise, be bright – be bright!