The Dream Cadence by Emily Bilman

Lost in a wild forest where rivers run

At counter cadence, I cannot step

Into the river of my dream. Each clue

Is immediately swept off by the original

Dream that keeps slipping away. Stood I

In an open field or was I celebrating 

Our team’s victory? I do not know.

The failed dream escapes me. I reconstruct

A virtual dream to soothe my melancholy

And Zephyr disperses my sadness. The real dream

Remains a wish fulfilled, the poem’s palimpsest.

Memory’s offspring, the real dream restores my breath.

Like the north star that leads the nocturnal way

The accomplished dream palliates the day.

Dr. Emily Bilman is a widely published poet who teaches poetry in her Stanza group in Geneva. Her three poetry books, A Woman By A Well (2015), Resilience (2015), and The Threshold of Broken Waters (2018) were published by Troubador, UK and Modern Ekphrasis by Peter Lang in 2013.  Her thesis is entitled The Psychodynamics of Poetry. She blogs on http://www.emiliebilman.wix.com/emily-bilman